First Name Americanization Patterns Among Twentieth-Century Jewish Immigrants to the United States

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From Rochel to Rose and Mendel to Max: First Name Americanization Patterns Among Twentieth-Century Jewish Immigrants to the United States

Jason H. Greenberg The Graduate Center, City University of New York

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FROM ROCHEL TO ROSE AND MENDEL TO MAX:

FIRST NAME AMERICANIZATION PATTERNS

AMONG TWENTIETH-CENTURY JEWISH

IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES

by Jason Greenberg

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics, The City University of New York

2017

Jason Greenberg

From Rochel to Rose and Mendel to Max: First Name Americanization Patterns Among Twentieth-Century Jewish Immigrants to the United States: A Case Study

Jason Greenberg

This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics.

______Date Cecelia Cutler Chair of Examining Committee

______Date Gita Martohardjono Executive Officer

THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

iii

ABSTRACT

From Rochel to Rose and Mendel to Max: First Name Americanization Patterns Among Twentieth-Century Jewish Immigrants to the United States: A Case Study

Jason Greenberg

Advisor: Cecelia Cutler

There has been a dearth of investigation into the distribution of and the alterations among

Jewish given names. Whereas Jewish surnames are a popular topic of study, first names receive far less analysis. Because Jewish immigrants to the United States frequently changed their names, this thesis can serve as a guide to genealogists and other scholars seeking to trace the paths of Jewish immigrants from Europe. Data was drawn from about 1500 naturalization records from Brooklyn in order to determine the correspondences between the given names featured on passenger lists and their Americanized counterparts. More than three-quarters of surveyed immigrants were revealed to have altered their names during the naturalization process, with English-language cognates and other phonetic and orthographic similarities ostensibly informing these changes.

Keywords: assimilation, immigration, Jews, naturalization, onomastics

PREFACE

For better or for worse, I was born a Jew. My family was Ashkenazic, of various Eastern

European origin, but because my parents and grandparents were born and raised in Brooklyn,

New York always felt like my ancestral home. The shtetls of the former Austrian and Russian

Empires were half a world away, and like many Jewish Americans I have met, I identified more with my anglophone, quasi-secular family in the United States than with my Hasidic forebears, all buried centuries ago in abandoned cemeteries in Europe, many of which have been converted into woodland or parking lots.

It was a stroke of luck that my family happened to be obsessed with genealogy. I have fond memories of reunions during my childhood, when I was regularly thrust into rooms and expected to instantly bond with my second, third, and even eighth cousins. Awkwardness would inevitably ensue—my cousins and I may have been genetic relatives, but we were also social strangers—but even though I barely knew these people, the fact that we shared surnames and even some physical features would intrigue me. The older generations were even more enthusiastic; I can recall a second cousin of my father’s repeating ad nauseam the exact address of the home in Romania in which my great-great-grandparents lived, and my grandmother took pride in her stern, devout grandparents from Austria (actually Ukraine, as we later discovered).

No family is perfect, and my own is especially guilty of intergenerational cycles of mistreatment and estrangement, but I would be remiss if I did not express gratitude to my relatives for allowing me to understand my roots.

As a young adult, I began to take my family’s already sound and thorough genealogical records into my own hands, using the Internet to confirm or refute oral traditions and explore branches that had been neglected. Around the same time, inspired in part by my studies in Latin

and the Harry Potter series, I became obsessed with onomastics, and before long, I was regularly scanning The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language’s index of Indo-European roots and creating a database of the etymology of the name of every Hogwarts student. These two interests merged when I discovered passenger lists and naturalization records, as I was suddenly able to trace the exact steps my ancestors took as they immigrated, taking on several aliases as they did so.

The more I untangled century-old cursive from Ellis Island and transcribed smudged, typewritten letters from rolls of microfilm, the more I realized that the names by which I knew as my forefathers were inconstant. One one branch, I learned that my great-grandfather Julius

Cooper (for whom I am named) had previously been known as Juda Kuperschlag. On another branch, my great-grandfather Harry Morovitz (for whom I am also named) had been born Chaim

Herszel Mrozowicz. My immediate family had been just religious enough to give me the Hebrew name of Yehudah Chaim purely for liturgical purposes, but it had never occurred to me that the foreign, overly velar moniker that I mostly ignored for years had in fact been two ancestors’

“real” names. I had never believed that there were Jewish men named Harry and Julius living in

Poland and Ukraine at the turn of the twentieth century, but I had never questioned how my great-grandparents self-identified before their arrival in New York Harbor.

From there, I began to notice patterns. Two ancestors named Abram had chosen to be called “Abraham” in the United States, which was unsurprising. Three great-great-grandmothers were referred to as “Rose” on their children’s vital records in the New York Municipal Archives, and their original names of Roschke, Reise, and Rochel all started with the same letter. The names Velvel, Chaya, Nachman, and Taube, which appeared on multiple branches of my tree, were uniformly Americanized, respectively, as “William,” “Ida,” “Nathan,” and “Tillie.” With

these trends emerging, I was able to make breakthroughs in my genealogical research based alone on what appeared to be the one-to-one correspondence between certain Hebrew and

English names.

The more that I collected data on my own family, however, the more I realized that name assimilation was not as simple as I had assumed. My aforementioned great-grandfather Harry

Morovitz was born Chaim Herszel, but a great-great-grandfather named Harry Goldman had been born Aron Icek, cognate to “Aaron Isaac.” A great-granduncle named Harry Greenberg had been born Yudel, but had chosen “Harry” over the expected cognate “Judah” or the near- homophonous “Julius.” Another Chaim in my family, my great-great-grandfather Chaim Weiner, had chosen the English cognate Hyman, but a great-granduncle named Hyman Feldman was not originally Chaim, but Cheskel, or “Ezekiel.” More confusingly, my great-grandmother Gertrude

Tobias did not have as her birth name the similar-sounding Gittel, but rather Dwosche, a diminutive of the Yiddish cognate of “Deborah.” Even more tantalizing, Gertrude’s sister-in-law, my great-grandaunt, had immigrated under the name Gitel Grimberg and lived for several years in New York as Gussie Greenberg, but after she married, she settled upon a given name that she invented herself: Luzela. A few of these alternative choices seemed perfectly reasonable, if unanticipated, but many sounded random.

In July of 1998, a researcher named Warren Blatt hosted a lecture at the Eighteenth

Seminar on Jewish Genealogy in Los Angeles, and during the latter third of which, he presented an original examination of onomastic data he had collected from upwards of six thousand Jewish graves from Boston and New York. Because it was customary during the early twentieth century, when these tombstones were erected, to include both the English and Hebrew names of the deceased, Blatt was able to perform a statistical analysis on the information he had gathered,

vii

determining the likelihood of correspondence among individual names. I was personally inspired by Blatt’s work, and from there, I developed the idea for this thesis.

Unlike Blatt, however, I have not used Landsmannschaft graveyards as my source, but naturalization records. In addition to financial and transportation-related barriers, my reason for choosing to peruse naturalization records instead of sallying forth on cemetery safaris is to fill what I feel is a minor gap in Blatt’s research. Despite what the abugida on a gravestone would suggest, not all Jewish immigrants to the United States were known by their Hebrew names; on the certificates of arrival in the first microfilm roll that I analyzed, I saw the Italic names Clara and Max, the Germanic Herman and Ida, the Slavic Olga and Sonia, and even the English Davis and William interspersed with the more traditionally Hebraic Chana, Feiga, Moische, and

Schloime. Clearly, naturalization records provide a significant, alternative perspective than that found on headstones.

My wish is to supplement Blatt’s earlier, seminal work. By categorizing etymologically related names, converting all names into an adaptation of the Daitch-Mokotoff soundex, and examining common names of the early 1900s, I plan to pinpoint the flexible, unspoken rules that largely determined name assimilation practices.

viii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This thesis would not have been possible without the advising of Professor Cecelia

Cutler, who painstakingly guided my every step for several months. In addition, the seminal work by scholars Alexander Beider and Warren Blatt provided the foundation upon which I constructed my study.

I would also like to thank the innumerable ancestors and far-flung relatives of mine, alive and deceased, who meticulously compiled and recorded vital information about their foreparents, thereby connecting me with those who never even made the crossing to North America.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

The Origins of American Jewry 1

The Onomastics of European Jewry 4

The Obfuscation of Jewish Names 6

The Fluidity of Jewish Names 9

Methodology 11

Sources and Standards 11

Ranking and Rationale 19

Soundexes 21

Aggregation and Organization of Data 26

Results 26

Changes by Name 26

Discussion 32

Implications for Future Research 35

Appendix A 39

Appendix B 57

Appendix C 71

Appendix D 93

Bibliography 96

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Examples of Possible Jewish Name Variation in European Society 4

Table 2: Examples of Jewish Name Variation on U.S. Records 9

Figure 1 12

Figure 2 12

Figure 3 12

Table 3: Percentage of Immigrants Per Region of Origin 14

Figure 4 15

Table 4: Examples of Analyses of Irregular Names 17

Table 5: Examples of Changes Among Immigrants’ Names 20

Table 6: Symbol/Sound Correspondences in the Cum Vocales Soundex 23

Table 7: Comparison of Hebraic Given Names As Rendered in the Three Soundexes 25

Table 8: Excerpt of Spreadsheet 26

Figure 5: Distribution of Name Americanization Patterns 28

Figure 6: Flowchart of Name Americanization Patterns 29

Table 9: Examples of Attested Name Changes 32

Figure 7 37

INTRODUCTION

The Origins of American Jewry

Jews are an ethnoreligious group (Fishman 2004, Safran 2004, Winter 1992) found in pockets all over the world. The most prominent ethnic subdivision is the Ashkenazi community, which comprises approximately eighty percent of the Jewish population (Feldman 2001).

Genetic studies on Ashkenazim have suggested a distant, chiefly Eastern Mediterranean origin, combined with a minor European contribution and filtered through centuries of the endogamy that ensued after a significant population bottleneck (Hammer et al. 2000, Behar et al. 2004).

Ashkenazim predominantly lived in Central and Eastern Europe for hundreds of years, and their endonym “Ashkenaz” (which translates to “Germany” in Hebrew) points to their earlier residence in the Holy Roman Empire (Kriwaczek 2005, Mosk 2013).

There were a handful of instances over the centuries in which European Jews received equal or nearly equal treatment under the law. Charlemagne welcomed Italian and Rhineland

Jews to his kingdom in order to spur trade (Gottheil et al. n.d., Scheindlin 1998). During the

Norman and early German rules over Sicily, Jews were granted some autonomy and held crucial roles in translating Arabic works into the local vernacular (Simonsohn 1997). At the French

National Assembly in 1791, Jews were granted full French citizenship (Mendes-Flohr &

Reinharz 1995), and Napoleon Bonaparte largely advocated for Jewish emancipation within the

French Empire (O’Meara 1822). Duke Bolesław the Pious ratified the Statute of Kalisz in 1264, granting substantial legal rights to Jews (“The Statute of Kalish…”). Casimir III the Great, who was rumored to have had a Jewish mistress (Sherwin 1997), implored Jews to settle in the

Kingdom of Poland during his reign in the mid-1300s, when he vowed to protect Jews as his subjects (Smith 2007). In fact, Poland at one point became known as such an attractive haven for

po“) ”פה לן יה“ Jewish life that the name “Polonia” was reanalyzed through folk etymology as lan yah”), “God lodges here” (Bell 2013).

Despite these few brighter moments, life for the Jewish people in Europe was rife with discrimination, forced resettlement, and bloodshed, and these patterns persisted across scores of generations. The People’s Crusade of 1096, which was concurrent with the First Crusade, resulted in the slaughter of several thousand Jews living along what is now the French-German border (Nirenberg 2002). In 1144, Christian residents of Norwich, England, participated in the earliest recorded blood libel against local Jews (Jacobs n.d.). During the mid-1300s, speculation was rampant that Jews had poisoned wells in order to create the Black Death (Levy 2005). In

1516, Venice introduced the first ghetto, which mandated segregated housing for Jews (Laskin

2016). Multiple expulsions from England, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, and Spain occurred throughout the second millennium CE, and massacres against Jews proliferated throughout Europe (Adler 1939, Benbassa 2001, Roth 2014, Shyovitz 2016, Teter

2008).

Jews have a long history in the United States, but it was only towards the close of the

1800s that they became a visible and influential demographic. Western Sephardic Jews began immigrating to the Americas in the seventeenth century in pursuit of financial advancement.

While these Jews mostly settled at first in the Caribbean and Brazil, immigration to North

America soon followed, and the first synagogue in what is now the United States opened its doors in Manhattan in 1654 (Angel 1973). Under the Plantation Act 1740, Jews were formally permitted to become naturalized (Henriques 1907), and the total Jewish population, both

Sephardic and Ashkenazic, of the Thirteen Colonies reached one to two thousand individuals by

1776 (Sheskin & Dashefsky 2012).

The mid-nineteenth century had featured a mass influx of German Jews, who left Central

Europe behind in the wake of a series of societal and legal changes. New laws restricted the number of Jews could marry in a given year, and the rise of industry began to render obsolete mercantile jobs, which were among the few occupations that Jewish men were able to hold. The sudden deterioration in economic opportunities spurred German Jews to emigrate to North

America (Diner n.d.). By the onset of the Civil War, the Jewish population of the United States, both Sephardic and German, had surpassed 150,000 (Sheskin & Dashefsky 2012).

It was the adversity that Eastern European Jews began to face in the rapidly expanding

Russian Empire that may have provided the impetus for Ashkenazim to flee Europe en masse.

The Russian Empire had acquired in the late 1700s large swaths of the former Kingdom of

Poland, where thousands of Jews had resided for centuries, and this led to friction from Russian rulers and commoners alike (McManus-Czubińska 2005, Mendes-Flohr & Reinharz 1995).

Following the successful assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, three years of pogroms against Jews followed in cities such as Warsaw, Odessa, and Kiev (Berk 1985). A second rash of pogroms occurred ten years later throughout the empire, leading to thousands of Jewish deaths

(Weinberg 1993). Facing such an unprecedented genocide, millions of Jews fled the Russian

Empire, seeking asylum in the United Kingdom and United States.

During the late nineteenth century, Jewish immigration skyrocketed. Between the year

1880 and the ratification of the Immigration Act of 1924, over 2.8 million Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from their pogrom-ridden ancestral Central and Eastern European homelands and resettled in the United States, a significant number of which flocked to the New York metropolitan area (Lemay & Barkan 1999, Lewin 1979). Though Jewish immigrants during this

period originated from several different continents, the overwhelming majority of Jews entering the United States were of Austian-Hungarian, Romanian, or Russian origin (Hyman n.d.).

The Onomastics of European Jewry

A curious pattern emerged among Ashkenazim in Europe, perhaps as a result of the conflict between their religious practices and the laws of the kingdoms surrounding their shtetls.

Jews, particularly Jewish men, frequently appeared across various records by several different, seemingly unrelated given names (see Table 1). The explanation for this is lies in the trichotomous Jewish naming practices of yore, wherein Jews would give their children a liturgical name of Hebrew origin; an etymologically related informal name; and, on occasion, a similar name in either Yiddish or the local European tongue (Beider 2001). Women’s names were more consistent than those of men, however, for several reasons: names of European origin were more common among women than men, only male Biblical names had animal associations, and women did not have status equal to that of men in the religious sphere.

This intrinsic variability in given names was not unique to European Jewry; in North

America, to name two examples, the members of the Powhatan tribe of modern-day Virginia possessed several names over the course of their lives (Rountree 1992), while the Yahi people of

Table 1: Examples of Possible Jewish Name Variation in European Society

Liturgical Name Colloquial Name Name on Records Rationale

Aryeh means “lion” in Hebrew, and Leib is the Yiddish calque. The Biblical character Aryeh or Yehudah Leib Leib Yehudah (Judah) was often associated with lions.

Tziporah (Zipporah) means “bird” in Hebrew, Tziporah Tsipe Feiga and Feiga is the Yiddish calque. Tsipe is a diminutive of Tziporah.

Yaakov Yakel, Yankel Iancu, Jankiel All names are cognates of Jacob.

northern California were mandated to never disclose their true names to enemies and foreigners

(Holcomb 2000). However, with the minor exception of the practice of selecting confirmation names in Roman Catholicism (Trigilio & Brighenti 2011), the legitimacy of the multiple given names belonging to Jewish immigrants remained largely without parallel in the United States.

Much to the chagrin of anglophone genealogists and historians, this fluidity in Jewish records persisted for centuries.

Because Jews, with the notable exception of rabbinical families such as the Lurias, did not adopt surnames until the turn of the nineteenth century, an interesting paradox has arisen.

Jewish first names appear to be largely unexplored in academia; despite millennia of potential content to review, analyses of Jewish naming conventions and related subject matter are few and far between. The literature on the relatively nascent Jewish surname is substantial, covering topics such as etymology, geographic distribution, and alterations by immigrants. Authors such as Beider (1996, 2004, 2008), Dzienciarsky (2015), Farkas (2009), Himmelfarb et al. (1983),

Kaganoff (1956), Loewenthal (1947), Munitz (1972), Rosenwiake (1990), Stern (1974), and

Tagger (n.d.) have all variously explored popular Jewish surnames over the past two hundred years, and further sources have used surname data to research the prevalence of genetic disorders and specific DNA markers among Jews (Cooklin et al., 1983; Krain et al. 1973; Nastiuk 1999;

Schwartz et al. 2001; White et al. 1972). However, beyond Beider (2001) and Cohn (2008),

Jewish given names continue to remain overlooked in academia. It is because of the dearth of existing literature on this subject that I elected to pursue this study.

The International Council of Onomastic Sciences, in its description of the purview of onomastics, notes that onomasts analyze manifold features of names. Some of the major questions in the field of onomastics that relate to the above include: What are the social

distribution patterns of names? How do dissimilar names pertain to an individual? What problems arise a name when is used in different languages to refer to a person? What are the trends and methods in play when a name is given? Onomastics is crucial to understanding the immigrant experience, especially the process of assimilation, as the field analyzes the various factors that drive immigrants to forsake their birth names and adopt replacements in the local language all constitute.

The Obfuscation of Jewish Names

This ubiquitous onomastic variability among Jews may have its roots in the more recent centuries of Hebraic culture in Europe. A few months before Christopher Columbus and his troupe opted to abduct Taínos and conflate them with the peoples of Southeast Asia, Isabella I and Ferdinand II issued the Alhambra Decree, which forced the Jews of Spain by the hundreds of thousands to either convert to Catholicism or flee the Kingdoms of Aragón and Castile (Lewis

2015). Those who remained and abandoned Judaism took Christian names and became known as

“conversos,” or converts, while the expelled Jews largely sought refuge in North Africa, the

Balkans, and the Ottoman Empire, assuming new identities in the process (Schen 2011). The

Spanish Inquisition and the subsequent expulsion is but one of a series of forced removals of

Jews throughout Europe that occurred during the first half of the second millennium C.E.

Germanic, Slavic, and Italic nations ejected Jews en masse, compelling the sudden itinerants to seek refuge in the Netherlands, Poland, the Maghreb, and the Middle East (Roth 2002). In each of these new lands, Jews were obliged to adapt to the local societal and linguistic practices while preserving some semblance of their ancestral culture.

A common misconception is that Jewish surnames are historically far more mutable than given names have been. While it is true that surname changes among Jews were frequent occurrences over the past quarter-millennium, assimilation practices abound as well among first names, which have been in existence for far longer than surnames have been. Central Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries provides a wealth of instances in which Jews altered their given names to reflect the culture and languages of vicinal Gentiles. Beider (n.d.) reports that, following a general period of Yiddish homogenization in the late 1500s, Jews slowly began to rename themselves, either voluntarily or by legal mandate. Between 1787 and 1867 in the Habsburg Monarchy, Jewish residents were required to change their names, drawing from a list of 160 German-language names. In late-nineteenth century Poland, there was a minor trend among urban Jews to rename themselves, drawing upon Polish translations of Biblical names and appellations of Slavic origin. Among men, these epithets did not replace Hebrew names outright, but rather supplemented them, serving as informal, secular monikers while Hebraic names remained in use for liturgical purposes.

Despite the trends and historical events that Beider (n.d.) uncovered, less attention has been given to Jewish personal name distribution than to the fickle phenomenon of Jewish surnames. As stated in the previous section, besides Praguers and those in several prominent rabbinical families, Jewish people did not bear surnames until the 1800s. Prior to the nineteenth century, Jews used patronymics, e.g., Reyza Eliaszowna (“Reyza, daughter of Eliasz”).

Patronymics did not have the same status as surnames, but they were used nonetheless on graves and in public records in order to distinguish similarly-named individuals. Between 1787 and

1833, legislative changes enacted in Central and Eastern Europe demanded that Jews adopt last names. Whereas Ashkenazic Jewish given names were of Semitic or Indo-European origin and

typically inherited from deceased ancestors (Beider 2001, Bloch 1980), different rules applied to the surnames that Jews were mandated to assume. Jewish people in German-speaking areas who complied with the surname law took adjectives (e.g., Ehrlich, “honest”), common nouns (e.g.,

Blatt, “leaf”; Stein, “stone”), or compounded roots (e.g., Mandelbaum, “almond tree”;

Rosenzweig, “rose branch”) as last names, while those who showed reluctance received less desirable names (e.g., Kaker, “defecator”) from local officials. Similar rules applied to Jews in

Slavic lands; though the selection and distribution of surnames varied greatly by year and area, both Gentile and Jewish authorities alike drew from the local dialect, personal names, and regional municipalities to inform the creation of last names (Beider n.d.). By the time that the wave of Ashkenazic emigration from Europe began in the 1880s, though the given names borne by Jewish travelers had long been staples of the Ashkenazi community, the surnames that the

Jews brought with them to the Americas had only been in use for a handful of generations.

Upon immigration to the United States, what began as a triad of given names among Jews became a quartet. The fifty years of diaspora and migration around the turn of the twentieth century encompassed, among other issues, an ethical and social-psychological struggle that many groups face upon arrival in a foreign country: whether or not to assimilate. In major population centers such as New York, Jews flocked to become naturalized citizens, and while some elected to maintain their original identities, the majority of Jews whose records I examined elected to

Americanize their names. Again, this widespread decision was not specific to Jews; it is quite common for Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants to Indo-European countries to change their names in order to at least partially assimilate to their newfound nationalities and grant themselves more opportunities (Bursell 2012). However, name assimilation and assorted changes among Jews has been disproportionately frequent, creating a bona fide phenomenon.

The Fluidity of Jewish Names

The malleable rules governing name assimilation among Jewish immigrants to the United

States have seen little study, and therefore, information on the general trends among onomastic

Americanization is scant. Warren Blatt, the current managing director of the genealogy website

JewishGen.org, has perhaps the most detailed analysis to date of name changes among Jewish immigrants to the United States, and despite his analysis of upwards of 6000 graves of Jewish immigrants, he states frankly that “there were no fixed equivalents for immigrant Hebrew or

Yiddish names” (slide 61), ultimately declaring that no regulations at all existed regarding name assimilation choices.

In light of the lack of literature and Blatt’s accurate condemnation of any hypothetical rules regarding name Americanization, I initially turned to my own genealogical research to prove or disprove Blatt’s assertion. Table 2 exemplifies the rampant mutability of names belonging to a single immigrant. On the grave of Alter Greenberg, my great-great-great-

Table 2: Examples of Jewish Name Variation on U.S. Records

Name on Document Transliteration Source

The New York Times, dated 31 October 1895 Alter Greenberg — Death certificate, dated 1912

Gravestone, erected circa 1912

Alther Greenberg — 1900 U.S. Federal Census Death certificate of son Hyman, dated 1939 Arthur Greenberg — Death certificate of daughter Minnie, dated 1955

Alter Grinberg Gravestone, erected circa 1912 אלטער גרינבערג Alter Yakl Gravestone of daughter Minnie, erected circa 1955 אלטער יאקל Altr Gravestone of daughter Pauline, erected circa 1983 אלתר

Yakl Gravestone, erected circa 1912 יאקל Yaakov Gravestone of daughter Yetta, erected circa 1978 יעקב Yaakov Alter Gravestone of son Hyman, erected circa 1939 יעקב אלטער

grandfather, his name appears as both “Alter Greenberg,” rendered in English and Hebrew letters, and “Yakel,” a diminutive of Yaakov (Jacob) that appears to have been supplanted by the amuletic Alter. On the death certificate of Alter’s daughter Minnie Greenberg, the informant

(Minnie’s daughter Luzela) Americanized Alter’s name to “Arthur Greenberg.” The death certificate of Alter’s son Hyman also featured “Arthur” instead. Per the custom, the graves of

Alter’s children Minnie, Hyman, Yetta, and Pauline featured patronymics, but each of the graves of Alter’s four children referred to him differently; he appears variously as “Altr,” “Alter Yakl,”

“Yaakov,” and “Yaakov Alter.” A single Jewish man, across nine different records, was known by eight different names. The substantial diversity in these references may not be typical of all

Jewish immigrants to the United States, but the above illustrates plainly the precedent for considerable variation in among the names that Jews possessed.

Despite what appeared to me initially to be chaos among my ancestors with regard to name Americanization, after further research, several discernible patterns emerged. I first noticed a somewhat consistent trend among individuals whose Yiddish birth names had popular English cognates, with cognateness serving as a potential basis for name choice. Among other relatives, a single initial letter or syllable in common with a common American name explained the adaptation. On occasion, though, there was no apparent relationship between pre- and post- immigration names, and the changes were inexplicable and unpredictable.

Blatt (1998) echoed these tendencies in his presentation, noting that the popularity of

American names was often a deciding factor in assimilation. If a Yiddish name had a trendy

English-language cognate, the overwhelming majority of immigrants with that name would elect to adopt the cognate as their own; 94% of the men named Benyomen that Blatt examined chose the popular “Benjamin” in the United States, but not a single Ikheskl became “Ezekiel.” Blatt

cites Harkavy (1925), who advocated that Jews select new names with the same or similar meaning as their birth names, as a contributor to the occasional prevalence of calques among name changes. According to this pattern, a woman named Malka could call herself “Regina” in the United States, as both names mean “queen,” and a man named Uri (“my light”) could become “Phoebus” (“bright”). Blatt also identified phonetic similarity as an impetus, but he specified that this parallel was often based on a single initial letter.

Though the academic consensus on the matter is that no rules existed to guide regular name changes, I felt that the few emerging patterns were worth further study. Because of the crucial role that naturalization records held in allowing Jewish immigrants to acclimate to their new environs, I opted to analyze a sample of these records in order to gather information about name Americanization.

METHODOLOGY

Sources and Standards

The data in this study was gathered from March to September of 2016, using petitions for naturalization available on ancestry.com to paid subscribers. These particular naturalization records were microfilmed and among those in rolls 863 through 872 currently in possession of the National Archives. Each record was originally filed between April and October of 1937 in the Eastern District of New York, which included Kings, Nassau, Queens, and Suffolk Counties.

All the records from which I collected data, however, were filed in Kings County (Brooklyn) only. The choice of midyear 1937 was mostly arbitrary; the petition for naturalization of my great-grandfather Harry Morovitz, whose data is included in the dataset, utilized a format that included his Yiddish/Polish name on the passenger list of the ship on which he immigrated. As

Figure 1

A sample naturalization record from the Eastern District of New York, 1906. The record features no details about the petitioner’s arrival beyond the date and port.

Figure 2

A sample naturalization record from the Eastern District of New York, 1928. This record adds the port of origin, the date of departure, and the name of the ship to the information on the previous version.

Figure 3

A sample naturalization record from the Eastern District of New York, 1933. This format includes the petitioner’s most recent foreign residence and his name on the passenger manifest of the ship on which he sailed. It was this third format of record that was used by all the petitioners counted in this study.

the microfilm records to which I had access did not uniformly provide certificates of arrival, it was more conducive to draw upon naturalization records with the Americanized name and the earlier, foreign name on the same page.

The formats of naturalization records varied significantly from decade to decade, and information on the dates when formats were changed is scant. From my own cursory research, it appears that petitions for naturalization filed prior to 1910 in New York’s Eastern District featured little more about a petitioner’s immigration than the approximate date of arrival and country of origin, rendering these records inconvenient for this study (see Figure 1). Petitions filed and approved in the 1910s and 1920s appear to have expanded considerably in the amount of information they featured, often including the name of the ships on which petitioners traveled

(Figure 2). It was not until the 1930s, unfortunately, that these petitions began to feature details procured directly from petitioners’ passenger lists, such as the individuals’ original names and most recent towns of residence (Figure 3). The records I consulted, because they were filed in

1937, used this more conducive and detailed format.

I collected information from 1496 of these petitions for naturalization, resulting in 1503 names in the data set. The average year of immigration was 1914, with the earliest immigrant arriving in New York in 1880 and the three latest arrivals landing at Ellis Island in 1935. Despite the fact that a minimum of five years living in the U.S. was required in order to become a naturalized citizen, the average year of arrival as recorded on the petitions included in the data set was 1914, with 1300 (86.9%) of the petitioners arriving in the United States prior to 1927.

Using JewishGen.org’s Town Finder search engine and Google Maps, I worked to locate the specific towns of birth that the petitioners disclosed. I was unable to find the contemporary municipalities corresponding to those included on each record; whereas some towns have

changed neither in name nor in nation since 1937, factors such as the frequently shifting borders of Europe and the phonetic renderings on petitions of common town names often obscured the original referents. Nevertheless, Table 3 shows my estimates, namely, that 1455 (97.26%) of the petitioners were born in Central or Eastern Europe, with the remaining forty-one individuals

(2.73%) born elsewhere. About one quarter of the petitioners (406, or 27.14%) reported that they had lived in towns other than their birthplaces prior to immigrating to the United States. A total of 1325 (88.57%) petitioners claimed that their most recent residences were in Central or Eastern

Europe, seventy-two (4.81%) in anglophone countries, and ninety-six (6.39%) from other nations. The three remaining petitioners (0.2%) did not provide a most recent residence.

There were three restrictions that I set for myself on which records to include in the data.

The goal was to study the name assimilation practices among foreign-born Jews, and as such, only a fraction of the naturalization petitions filed in Brooklyn in 1937 were eligible (see Figure

Table 3: Percentage of Immigrants Per Region of Origin

Region Place of Birth Recent Residence

Central and Eastern Europe Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, 1455 (97.26%) 1325 (88.57%) Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Ukraine

Southern Europe 19 (1.27%) 22 (1.47%) Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, and Turkey

Middle East 12 (0.8%) 26 (1.74%) Egypt, Israel, and Syria

Western Europe 7 (0.47%) 17 (1.14%) Belgium, France, and the Netherlands

Latin America 2 (0.13%) 24 (1.6%) Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Panama

Northern Europe 1 (0.07%) 2 (0.13%) Sweden

Anglophone countries N/A 72 (4.81%) Canada and the United Kingdom East Asia N/A 5 (0.33%) China and Japan Not given N/A 3 (0.2%)

Figure 4 Three examples of ineligible petitions for naturalization. The record at top features “housewife” as the petitioner’s race, which is almost certainly a misprint, but it renders the Jewish ethnicity of its referent uncertain. The middle record belongs to a petitioner born in New York who lost her citizenship upon marrying an Eastern European immigrant. The bottom record belongs to a petitioner born in England.

4). The primary limiting factor was the answer to the third question on the petitions; on the dotted line following the “My race is” prompt, only petitions with the demonym “Hebrew” were eligible for inclusion. Even petitioners with ostensibly Hebraic names were omitted if they self- identified as “Polish,” “Russian,” or some other nationality or ethnic group, as their Jewishness could not be proven. The second limitation on eligibility was immigration status, which may seem counterintuitive, as naturalization records were intended for immigrants seeking citizenship. However, under Section 3 of the Expatriation Act of 1907, U.S.-born women inherited their husbands’ citizenship, or lack thereof, and not vice versa. Until the ratification of

the Cable Act of 1922, which repealed this double-standard1, women born in the United States regularly became naturalized, but because these women were not of foreign birth, their petitions could not be included in this study. The third restriction pertained to the language spoken in the petitioners’ country of origin. Because I wished to examine the anglicization of foreign names, I chose to exclude petitioners who were born in anglophone countries.

Each petition for naturalization that I consulted featured the name under which the petitioner immigrated. However, there were rare instances in which there was not a simple one- to-one correspondence between the name on the passenger list and the Americanized name at the top of the petition. On the occasion that multiple foreign and Americanized names were provided, I would analyze both names. Where a single foreign name appeared with two

Americanized names, I analyzed both Americanized names as long as each shared at least a passing phonetic similarity to the foreign name. Where there was no significant phonetic similarity to one of the multiple Americanized names, the less relevant name was not examined.

On petitions featuring multiple foreign given names and a single English-language name, I would do the same.

There was a minority of petitions that featured more ambiguity over the petitioners’ names, either on the passenger manifest or in the United States. When the petitioner’s two foreign given names were phonetically similar to her or his Americanized name, I chose to take the less English-sounding of the two names into account. When the circumstances were reversed, and the petitioner provided two American aliases, I examined the less Yiddish-sounding of the two. Occasionally, the petitioner would lightly anglicize the name included her or his passenger manifest, providing both names on the petition in the same space, but I would only include the

1 Unfortunately, as men of Asian descent were ineligible for U.S. citizenship in the 1920s, it was not until the Cable Act was amended in 1931 that U.S. women were allowed to preserve their citizenship after marrying Asian men.

non-anglicized name in my data. In the rare case that an immigrant would have two completely unrelated aliases, I would select the alias that more closely resembled the name that the immigrant took in the United States. In the handful of instances when an immigrant’s foreign and

American name were nearly identical, but the American name was followed by an explicitly former alias, I used the alias in lieu of the name on the passenger manifest. Last, when an immigrant had several aliases within the United States, I would draw upon the alias listed first

Table 4: Examples of Analyses of Irregular Names

Petition Name on Passenger List Name on Petition Names Analyzed

Multiple aliases on passenger list (one foreign, one English), one name on petition

233167 Johann (Janos) (Louis) Louis Louis > Louis

233648 Hannah Hudia (Hene Hudes) Anna Hene > Anna

Two names on passenger list, two names on petition

235245 Abram Ber Abraham Boris Abram > Abraham, Ber > Boris

Two names on passenger list (one English, one foreign), one name on petition

237024 Jennie (Scheindel) Jean Scheindel > Jean

Two names on passenger list (both foreign), one name on petition 233020 Scheinne Malka Mollie Malka > Mollie

One name on passenger list, multiple aliases (one or more English, one or more foreign) on petition

Isidore (formerly 233345 Iur Iur > Isidore Kiewe and Izzie)

One name (English) on passenger list, two aliases (one English, one foreign) on petition

233290 Louis Louis (formerly Leizer) Leizer > Louis

One name (foreign) on passenger list, two aliases (both English) on petition 232962 Ruchel Rose (a.k.a. Rachel) Ruchel > Rose

One name on passenger list, two names on petition (both phonetically similar) 236633 Afroim Frank Ephraim Afroim > Frank, Afroim > Ephraim 237474 Chane Helen (Hannah) Chane > Helen, Chane > Hannah

One name on passenger list, two names on petition (one phonetically similar, one phonetically dissimilar)

236271 Jozef Harry Joseph Jozef > Joseph

for my data. Table 4 provides several examples of these ambiguous names and how I implemented the measures above in my classifications.

Once I had collected the 1503 names, I grouped them into four categories for the purposes of classification: Hebraic names in Alexander Beider’s A Dictionary of Ashkenazic

Given Names, Hebraic names with phonetically similar entries in Beider, names with Yiddish cognates in Beider, and non-Hebraic names. As Yiddish names were highly mutable, grouping related names would allow for a more consistent and thorough analysis, and Beider’s meticulously compiled compendium of given names was an asset to this process. However, while Beider’s Dictionary is highly comprehensive, it could not possibly account for the significant orthographic variability among the names appearing on New York passenger manifests. Thus, when an ostensibly Yiddish given name was not included in Beider, I drew from phonetically and orthographically similar names within Beider for my data. Among the data were also English-language names that had Yiddish cognates in Beider, and though these English names did not always appear in Beider, I grouped the English names with their Yiddish cognates.

While I was able to classify the overwhelming majority of the petitioners’ foreign names using

Beider and my own judgment, there were 131 records (8.72%) that were neither of Hebraic origin nor present in Beider’s text, and in order to examine these, I consulted

BehindTheName.com.

There remain only seven records (0.47%) featuring names that I could not identify: Erdi,

Isze, Mercado, Mor, Senora, Yamilla, and Zraim. I suspect that Erdi and Isze may have originally been akin to Hannah (*Hendel) and Isaiah, their bizarre spelling a result of incorrect transcriptions, and that the remaining five names were of obscure Mediterranean origin, as their bearers all came from either Southern Europe or the Middle East. However, in order to more

accurately categorize these seven names, locating their referents’ passenger manifests could help to dispel any errors in interpretation.

Ranking and Rationale

In my examination of the petitions, it became clear rather quickly that not every immigrant decided to change her or his name. Among those who did opt to alter their names, there were no universal correspondences or ironclad rules. Rather, there were numerous general trends that determined name changes, or lack thereof, with alternatives to each trend. While I will discuss these patterns later on, I should note that once I became aware of the patterns, I began to organize the petitioners’ names correspondingly. I was able to arrange the 1503 names that I analyzed, according to the type of change, into six different groups: no change, orthographic change, cognate, soundex, sound/letter change, and other change (see Table 5 for examples).

No change. Quite simply, the names in this category are those that do not appear to have changed; the given name on the first line of a petition is identical to that on the immigrant’s passenger manifest.

Orthographic. The names in this category are those that met two criteria: first, that only one or three letters in the name were altered, and second, that the name’s approximate pronunciation according to both the Daitch-Mokotoff (DM) soundex and my own adapted soundex (see below) was largely unchanged.

Cognate. These names are those that originated in Yiddish or another Eastern European tongue and, when their referents chose to assimilate, were altered to English-language cognates or nicknames. In this way, petitioners named Abram and Awrum became “Abraham” and “Abe,”

Table 5: Examples of Changes Among Immigrants’ Names

Type of Change Name on Passenger List Name on Petition

Benjamin Benjamin No change Eva Eva Olga Olga Ester Esther Orthographic change Peritz Peretz Zelda Selda Abram Abraham Cognate Chana Anna Sore Sarah Basia Bessie Soundex Chaje Ida Wulf William Feiga Fanny Sound/letter Itzyk Irving Taube Tillie

Translation* Bluma Susan

Chake Ida Bandwagon Eisig Irving

Gedalie Charles No clear relationship Regina Victoria Srul Harry

* In this particular case, Bluma (“bloom”) has a similar meaning to “Susan” (“rose”). † The italicized names above are formatted as such in order to demonstrate the “bandwagon” pattern. Whereas Chake and Eisig are phonetically dissimilar from “Ida” and “Irving,” these two names followed the patterns exhibited by the more regular variants Chaje and Itzyk. and those named Chane and Hene became “Anna,” “Annie,” and “Nancy.” It should be noted, however, that the “orthographic” category supersedes “cognate”; while many immigrant women named Ester opted to change their names to the English cognate of “Esther,” because of the similarities in spelling and pronunciation, I grouped Ester > “Esther” as “orthographic” instead of “cognate.”

Soundex. The name changes in this category can be explained by phonetic commonalities. I transcribed relevant names using the International Phonetic Alphabet and converted the renderings into their equivalents according to the D-M Soundex and my own soundex. Whenever at least one third of the sounds in the passenger list name were shared by the

Americanized name under either or both of the two soundexes, I counted the name change as soundex-based.

Sound/letter change. This group encompasses all the foreign names I gathered that changed to phonetically dissimilar English names, ostensibly on the basis of a shared first letter, initial sound, or the occasional medial sound. Also included in this group are names that changed according to the phonetic nature of their variants, such as Riwke to “Betty” and Srul to “Irving.”

In the former case, the connection seems to be thus: Riwke became “Rebecca” (the English cognate), “Rebecca” became “Becky” (the English nickname), and “Becky” to “Betty” (similar soundex). In the latter, the logic might have been Srul to “Israel” (the non-nickname form),

“Israel” to “Irving” (same first letter).

Translation. There was a single instance in my data of the exchange a Hebraic name for an English calque.

Bandwagon. There were two names within the data that were Americanized in line with their Yiddish-language variants, even though these two names did not share any phonetic or orthographic similarity with their Americanized forms.

Other change. Every Americanization that cannot be adequately explained by the rules above constitutes this category.

Soundexes

In order to analyze my data, I relied on a soundex, which is an algorithm involving the conversion of similar sounds into numbers for the purposes of organization. The Daitch-

Mokotoff Soundex was developed by genealogists Randy Daitch and Gary Mokotoff for the purposes of categorizing and researching Eastern European surnames, especially those belonging

to Jews, and it was this soundex that I initially utilized to analyze my data. While newer and potentially more accurate soundexes have been developed, particularly the Beider-Morse

Phonetic Name Matching algorithm, I personally found the D-M Soundex the easiest to use for my purposes. The D-M Soundex is largely effective at categorizing consonants; 3 represents dental stops and interdentals, 4 encompasses coronal continuants and affricates, 5 covers velar and glottal sounds, 6 stands for nasals, 7 symbolizes labials, 8 denotes laterals, and 9 indicates rhotic sounds. In addition, 0 is used for word-initial vowels, 1 is used for /j/ onsets, and 2 is used for initial coronal continuant-stop clusters such as /st/. Following this system, the Hebrew name

Avraham would be rendered as 07956, and the Yiddish name Shprintse would be converted into

47964.

There is a flaw in the D-M Soundex, however, that generated numerous false positives among my data: the algorithm all but ignores vowels. As stated above, the only circumstance under which the D-M Soundex acknowledges vowels is when they appear in word-initial positions, and while this oversight may not prove a hindrance for categorizing surnames, it created numerous false positives during my work with given names. The Yiddish name Chuma has the same D-M Soundex as the name Chana (Hannah), when the former is in fact a pet form of Nechuma. Similarly, the common Beyla is identical to Pola according to the D-M Soundex, but the former is cognate to the English name “Bella” and the latter is likely a diminutive of

Zipporah. All but omitting the vowels when categorizing names can visibly lead to confusion among and conflation of unrelated names.

Thus, I chose to adapt the D-M Soundex for the purposes of this study, and I created two variations: “cum vocales" and “sine codae.” Both soundexes have the same phonetic-numerical correspondences as the Daitch-Mokotoff soundex, but with several exceptions: plus and minus

signs are included to indicate vowels, 0 is repurposed to represent labial approximants, and 2 is unused. These changes preserve the differences among names featuring markedly different vowels without altering or diminishing the importance of consonants.

The cum vocales soundex is strict, and it generates few false positives in name classification, as compared with the D-M Soundex (see Table 6). The the relative flexibility in the sinae codae soundex, however, allows for easier analysis of names that would otherwise appear phonetically dissimilar. The only difference between the two soundexes is that sine codae has three additional rules:

1. Liquids, “h-sounds” (glottal and velar continuants), and nasals in codas are excluded

when the following syllable begins with a consonant.

Table 6: Symbol/Sound Correspondences in the Cum Vocales Soundex

Symbol(s) Types of Sounds Represented Sounds Represented

– open, near-open, and open-mid vowels a ɑ æ ɛ ə ɔ ʌ mid, close-mid, and near-close vowels e ɪ o ʊ + diphthongs aɪ aʊ eɪ oɪ oʊ ɔɪ +0 close back vowels u +1 close front vowels i

0 labial approximants w

1 velar approximants j 2 unused —

3 coronal stops and interdentals d ð t θ 4 coronal fricatives and affricates ʣ ʤ s ʃ ʦ ʧ z ʒ 5 velar and glottal non-approximants g h k χ 6 nasals m n

7 labial stops b f p v 8 laterals l 9 rhotic sounds r ʁ ʀ

2. Liquids, “h-sounds” (glottal and velar continuants), and nasals in codas are excluded

when another consonant follows them within the same coda.

3. Onset consonant clusters that do not exist or barely exist in English, such as dw and

sr, are reduced, with the second of the two consonants deleted.

In Table 7, we see a comparison of ten common female Yiddish names from Beider’s

Dictionary, rendered in the D-M Soundex, my cum vocales soundex, and my sinae codae soundex. Yiddish pronunciations are approximate.

When I began comparing the soundexes of pairs of names in order to prove or disprove a phonetic similarity, I quickly noticed that there was the recurring possibility of a false positive match. My initial approach was to write both of the names in each comparison using my cum vocales and sine codae soundexes, and calculate the potential phonetic similarity between the two names using a rudimentary equation:

characters in name A also present in name B × 2 = percent similarity total characters in name A + total characters in name B

Whereas this equation was able to account for name changes in which the American name chosen was mono- or disyllabic, a problem arose with polysyllabic English-language names, which can appear to have a greater phonetic similarity due to the mere presence of more sounds in these names. To avoid this outcome, I added two rules to my analysis: for a sound in the

English-language name to be counted as a match to its Hebraic predecessor, no more than one consonant (represented in my soundexes by numbers 3–9) can separate the sound from the preceding sound in the name that has been counted as a match, and the matching sounds in the

English name must appear in the same order as they do in the Hebraic name.

Table 7: Comparison of Hebraic Given Names As Rendered in the Three Soundexes

Rendering in the D-M Rendering in the Cum Rendering the Sine Name in Beider (2001) Soundex Vocales Soundex Codae Soundex

Beyle 78 7+8– 7+8– Perle 798 7–98– 7–8–

Dore 39 3+9– 3+9– Dvoyre 379 37+9– 3+9– Ginendl 56638 5+6–63–8 5+6–3–8 Khane 56 5–6– 5–6–

Sheyne 46 4+6– 4+6–

Tserne 496 4–96– 4–6–

Shifre 479 4+79– 4+79–

Tsipoyre 479 4+7+9– 4+7+9–

I will now illustrate the above using a common name in my dataset: Basheve, frequently appearing as the shortened form Basia on passenger lists. The English name “Bessie” is a strong match, and its soundex of 7–4+1 is similar to Basia’s soundex of 7–4– (both according to cum vocales and sine codae), yielding a 67% similarity. Also attested is the English name “Betty,” with a soundex of 7–3+1, bearing a 45% similarity to Basia. The name “Beatrice,” however, with its soundex of 7+1–39+4, appears at first glance to have a 46% similarity with Basia, as almost every sound in Basia is present in “Beatrice.” By applying the two rules above, however, the similarity decreases to 31%, and this suggests that “Beatrice” was chosen as a substitute for

Basia more because of the shared initial sound than an overall phonetic resemblance.

Aggregation and Organization of Data

In order to effectively catalog and analyze the data from the 1503 names used in this study, I created a spreadsheet in which I initially listed the following information from each petition for naturalization: the immigrant’s full name on her or his passenger list, the immigrant’s full Americanized name, the town of birth, the last foreign residence, the year of immigration, the petition number, the roll in which the petition is included, and the slide within that roll (Table

8). When I had finished collecting the data and began to examine each name, I added columns that detailed the type of name change, the corresponding entry in Beider (2001), the English- language equivalent of each name, and the towns of birth and most recent residence according to their contemporary names.

RESULTS

Changes by Name

Among the 1503 names in this study, 361 (24.02%) did not change upon naturalization.

An additional eighty-eight names (5.86%) merely underwent minor orthographic changes. As shown in Figure 5, of the 1055 names (70.19%) that were Americanized, 293 names (19.49%) ostensibly changed to English-language cognates, 377 names (25.08%) were swapped for phonetically similar English names, and 307 names (20.43%) were replaced with popular

English names that shared an initial (or occasionally medial) sound or letter with the original

Yiddish names. One name (0.07%) appears to have followed Harkavy’s (1925) recommendation of name changes based on calques. Two names (0.13%) demonstrated what I call a “bandwagon shift,” i.e., that the Yiddish versions bore little to no relation to their Americanized counterparts, but because other immigrants with related Yiddish names chose a particular English name, these

Table 8: Excerpt of Spreadsheet

NAME OF IMMIGRANT ETYMOLOGY Full Name on Type of Change Nearest English Full Name on Petition Entry in Beider Passenger List Equivalent

Meyer Suconick Meyer Suconick No change Meyer (p. 377) Meyer Rose Liebowitz (a.k.a. Ruchla Lebowicz Sound/letter Rokhl (p. 560) Rachel Rachel Liebowitz) Haron Ackerman Aaron Ackerman Cognate Orn (p. 394) Aaron

Roberto Levy Robert Levy Cognate — Robert Sosja Stelson Sophie Stelson Sound/letter Sore (p. 574) Sarah

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Town of Birth Foreign Residence

Ukraine, Chudnov “Russia, Chudnow” Canada, Montreal “Canada, Montreal”

Poland, Warsaw “Poland, Warsaw” Poland, Warsaw “Poland, Warsaw”

Moldova, Lipcani “Rumania, Lipcani” Moldova, Lipcani “Rumania, Lipcani” Russian E.—uncertain "Russia, Bakou” Canada, Montreal “Canada, Montreal”

Lithuania, Vilnius “Russia/Poland, Vilna” Lithuania, Vilnius “Russia/Poland, Vilna”

Year of Immigration Petition Number Roll Slide

1932 232957 863 25

1922 232962 863 48

1921 232967 863 71

1931 232968 863 75 1912 232969 863 79

two immigrants appeared to have followed suit. The remaining seventy-four Americanized names (4.92%) bore no clear relationship to the foreign names that they supplanted.

The 1503 names included in this study appear to have largely followed a series of general patterns during the process of Americanization. Among my earliest findings was that the names

included on the Social Security Administration’s top 1000 popular birth names in the United

States were far likelier to be chosen by immigrants than names that were not featured. If the name that an immigrant provided on her or his passenger list appeared in the top 1000 most popular given names in the United States during at least one year between 1880 and 1939, one of four alternatives occurred: the name did not change at all, there was a minor orthographic change, the name changed to an English-language nickname, or the name was substituted for a more popular English-language relative. If the immigrant’s name did not appear among the top

1000 most popular given names, the Americanization process was more complicated, and it occurred in several stages.

Figure 5: Distribution of Name Americanization Patterns

Figure 6: Flowchart of Name Americanization Patterns

Figure 6 best exemplifies this process. The primary deciding factor influencing name

Americanization appears to have been a given name’s inclusion or omission from the top 1000 most popular birth names in the United States. Given names that happened to appear among the lists of top 1000 most popular birth names in at least one year between 1880 and 1937 tended to undergo different alterations than those that were excluded from these lists. Immigrants’ names that were popular between 1880 and 1937 largely followed four trends: the names either did not change at all, were substituted for English-language nicknames or diminutives, switched to a more popular English relative, or experienced a minor orthographic change. Names that were merely one or two letters different from and shared similar pronunciations with top 1000 names followed these same patterns.

The names that were neither present on at least one top 1000 list nor orthographically comparable to entries on such lists mostly followed a regular series of changes. Names that had at least one top 1000 English-language cognate were predominantly altered to the cognate. Many of the names that did not have English-language cognates changed to an unrelated yet phonetically similar name, and one that shared either an overall soundex (described below), or, failing that, at least a partial soundex with the foreign name. Immigrant names that had neither an

English cognate nor a significant phonetic similarity to any top 1000 name were swapped for popular English-language names with which they shared an initial or medial sound, letter, or even consonant cluster. The remaining names almost entirely underwent unpredictable changes.

These several levels of Americanization are delineated more thoroughly below:

1–Cognate. Immigrants whose names had a top 1000 English-language cognate typically opted to change their names to these cognates or nicknames of these cognates.

2–Total soundex. Immigrants whose names did not have English cognates often took phonetically similar English names as their own. Foreign names in this category, when rendered in the cum vocales and sine codae soundexes, shared at least 66.7% of their phonetic values with their Americanized names.

3–Partial soundex. Immigrants whose names did not share at least 66.7% of their phonetic values with a top 1000 English name belong in this group. Names that changed according to “partial soundex” were exchanged for top 1000 English names that bore at least a

33.3% phonetic similarity with the foreign names according to both the cum vocales and sine codae soundexes.

4–Initial or medial sound or letter. Many of the remaining names changed to top 1000

English names that shared an initial (or occasionally medial) sound, letter, or consonant cluster with the foreign name.

5–Translation. One name (as discussed above) was swapped for an English-language calque with a similar meaning to that of the foreign name.

6–Bandwagon. Two names (as discussed above) changed to reflect the most popular

Americanized name among other immigrants with related foreign names.

7–Other change. A minority of name changes were apparently arbitrary. Analysis of additional records belonging to each of the immigrants with names in this category could help to explain some of these changes, but such an analysis was beyond the scope of this study.

As Table 9 shows below, not every immigrant with a name that had a top 1000 popular

English-language cognate elected to Americanize her or his name to this cognate; while most women named Leye became “Leah,” a minority of women did not. Of those who did not become

“Leah,” most progressed to the next step, which was to select an English name with an overall

soundex similar to Leye, among which was “Lina.” Those who chose neither “Leah” nor “Lena” appear to have chosen another popular name with a partial phonetic similarity to Leye, which was “Leonore.” The remaining Leyes in my dataset either adopted “Laura,” a popular name with the same first letter and sound as Leye, or a completely unrelated popular name such as “Anna.”

DISCUSSION

The results of this study support Blatt’s assertion that there are no infallible rules responsible for name changes among immigrants. No single group of related names among the

1503 compiled given names universally shifted to an individual English name; while most women with the disyllabic name Sore became “Sarah” or a related name (e.g., “Sadie,” “Sally”) on American soil, there were a handful of immigrants who changed their names to “Celia,”

“Selma,” “Shirley,” “Sophie,” or “Sylvia.” While these alternative alterations can be justified through the flowchart in the Results section, there is no way to explain why women named Sore chose one English name over another. Indeed, between the years 1880 and 1937, the phonetically similar names “Cherie,” “Cherry,” “Shari,” and “Sherry” appeared at least once in the top 1000 popular names, but none appeared as an alternative for Sore among my data2.

Table 9: Examples of Attested Name Changes

Beider Name Cognate Total Soundex Partial Soundex Sound or Letter Other Change

Leye Leah Lina Leonore Laura Anna

Bashe (Basheve) — Bessie Betty Beatrice Anna

Gdalye — — Donald George Charles Taube — — — Tillie Ida

Florye — — — — Sadie

2 No reason has been determined regarding the absence of popular names that bore a common initial sound, initial letter, or medial sound with Sore, such as “Cara,” “Celestine,” “Charity,” “Charlotte,” “Clara,” “Cynthia,” “Samantha,” “Savannah,” “Selena,” “Serena,” “Sidney,” “Sophronia,” “Stella,” “Susan,” and “Sybil.”

Nevertheless, this study upholds Blatt’s second claim, namely, that many name changes are vindicated by a few recurring patterns. Blatt identified four trends in name

Americanization—cognate, calque, phonetic resemblance (including initial sounds and letters as well as assonance), and no identifiable relation—and noted that phonetic resemblance constituted the majority of changes while calques were the least common type of alteration. Because he drew from tombstones engraved in two different writing systems, Blatt’s analysis did not appear to include Hebraic names that did not change. Nonetheless, this study maintains Blatt’s finding that calques were rare in name Americanization, comprising only one of the 1503 name changes I identified. Similarly, name changes based on phonetic similarity outnumbered those based on cognates in my study just as in Blatt’s; though I chose to separate names according to various amounts of phonetic and initial orthographic resemblance instead of lumping them all in a single category, the fact remains that the total of the names in these three categories exceeds the quantity of name changes based on cognates.

I felt that my cum vocales and sine codae soundex models allowed me to better predict name Americanization patterns than the Daitch-Mokotoff soundex in part because of the latter soundex’s overwhelming omission of vowels, which was far more appropriate for surnames than for given names. According to the D-M soundex, the Polish-Jewish surnames Schtaynchart,

Shteingord, Steinchort, Steinhart, Stejngard, Sztajnhart, Sztanhort, Sztejnchard,

Sztenhardt, and Szteynard can all be rendered as 436593 or 43693, allowing for the simple deduction that they are all orthographic variants of the Germanic surname Steinhardt. Among surnames, which can differ greatly orthographically but not phonetically among individuals, the

D-M soundex permits researchers to connect seemingly unfamiliar permutations of the same name. Because given names are often shorter than surnames and significant variations occur

among them in spelling, pronunciation, and suffixation, taking vowels into account helps to rule out false positives. The Yiddish given names Gime, Hine, Huno, Khane, Khaym, and Kune, though all unrelated, would each be rendered as 56 under the rules of the D-M soundex, potentially leading to confusion. With the rules of my soundexes in mind, Gine, Hine, Huno, and

Kune would become 5+6–; Khane would become 5–6–; and Khaym would become 5+6. Though there is still some ambiguity, including vowels removes two of the erroneous matches.

Because 70.12% of the names of the immigrants included in this study were changed, if this pattern is indicative of Jewish immigrants as a whole during the early twentieth century, there was clearly a marked tendency for this population to at once assimilate to the culture of their neighbors as well as to preserve an iota of their ancestral identities in how they adapted their names. On the latter point, as discussed earlier, this acculturation was hardly limited to

Jewish immigrants to the United States in the early twentieth century. Rather, the above is emblematic of a far larger pattern throughout history that persists to the present day; Central

European Jews intentionally adopted German first and last names in order to avoid prejudice

(Bering 1987), and within the United States, a plurality of both immigrants and visitors alike of

East Asian origin have opted to assume English-language names (Kang 1971, Lieberson 2000).

Gerhards and Hans (2009), in their survey of onomastic patterns among children born to

Mediterranean immigrants in Germany, found that roughly one quarter of these children’s parents chose German-language names for the children, with the proportion varying significantly according to the mother tongue and country of origin of the parents. Souto-Manning (2007) offers a sobering summary of these name assimilation patterns, namely, that altering one’s name is a pivotal element of integration into another nation’s society, and that assimilation can be essential to success in immigrants’ new home countries.

Total onomastic assimilation, however, was not common among the Jewish immigrants in this study. As demonstrated, the overwhelming majority of name changes followed a variable series of patterns, and the fact that only 7.01% of name changes (5.14% of all Americanizations) in this study were ostensibly random signals that while onomastic acculturation was key, even the most minimal detail of immigrants’ birth names was viewed as worthy of preservation. Hurh and Kim’s (1984) analysis of Korean-American immigrants supports this tendency to maintain certain components of one’s cultural heritage; they found that Korean immigrants to the United

States often embraced certain American mores, but this appropriation was additive, with both

U.S. and traditional Korean customs coexisting in the lives of these immigrants. Whereas changing aspects of one’s identity was almost prerequisite for engagement and even success in

American society, it appears that though the data suggests that name changes were likely viewed as an obligatory survival tactic, Jewish culture was hardly abandoned altogether in the United

States, and the adaptation rather than the exchange of a name was a means of subtly upholding

Jewish heritage and identity.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

A study such as this has the potential to benefit genealogists, both amateur and professional, who are seeking information on Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants to the United

States. As demonstrated above, name changes among Jews were widespread, and these changes often followed a loose series of patterns. Family historians, when trying to find immigration records such as passenger lists or even vital records from foreign countries, can scan the data compiled for this study in order to identify the Yiddish name or names that may have preceded an immigrant’s English-language moniker. Popular databases such as The Statue of Liberty -

Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., and SteveMorse.org rely on systems such as the Daitch-Mokotoff soundex in order to generate record matches for their users, and this allows researchers to more easily identify foreigners who only marginally altered their names in the United States. While I was researching two ancestors of mine named “Abraham” during their time in the Americas, these search engines quickly generated matching records, on both of which my ancestors were named Abram. However, not every immigrant named “Abraham” in my data originally bore the phonetically similar, Yiddish cognate of Abram; the descendants of one “Abraham Willner”

(petition 235651) would probably experience difficulty locating their ancestor’s passenger list, on which he was recorded by the unrelated name of Leib Kuschnir. Though I have personally encountered several Jewish men in my own genealogical research named Abram Leib, a double name could explain this immigrant’s otherwise odd selection, there is no way to prove such a hypothesis without accessing and scanning further records. Nevertheless, this study allows researchers access to more attested Yiddish-English correspondences, potentially helping them to determine the original names of subjects.

The identification of immigrants’ parents and U.S.-born namesakes are two additional advantages that this study may provide. As noted in the introduction, a recurring practice among the relatives of Jewish immigrants was the Americanization of the immigrants’ parents’ names.

On the death certificate of my great-great-grandmother Sarah Feldman (née Scheindel or Szendla

Szteinhardt), her parents’ names were given as “Nathan” and “Beatrice,” and even though these names are both English, neither of her parents ever emigrated from their native Poland (see figure 7). In my data, the Americanized name “Nathan” appeared eight times, while “Beatrice” appeared six times. Two of the eight men named “Nathan” in the United States were listed as variants of Nahman/Nahum (Nokhum in Beider), and one “Beatrice” was originally named

Figure 7 Excerpts from the 1932 death certificate of Sarah Feldman (top) and the 1849 marriage record of Nachman Dawid Sztenhardt and Mindla Bluma Grajewski (bottom).

Bluma (Blume in Beider). After some trial and error, I was eventually able to locate the Polish- language marriage record of Sarah’s parents, on which they were listed by their birth names of

Nachman Dawid and Mindla Bluma. Moreover, the names that Sarah selected for her children provided a clue to her parents’ names. It is customary among Ashkenazic Jews to name their descendants after deceased relatives (“The Laws of Jewish Names,” n.d.), and Sarah appears to have followed this tradition; her youngest daughter, nicknamed “Minnie,” was born Mindla

Bluma. The name of Sarah’s daughter, in combination with the Americanized name on Sarah’s death certificate, provided clues as to the name of Sarah’s non-immigrant mother. In this way, the data collected for this study can help to draw connections between the generations, enabling genealogists to rely on records belonging to immigrants and their descendants as a means to determine the identities of immigrants’ recent ancestors.

Though this study can serve as a tool for genealogists studying Jewish families, the results have a more universal applicability. The results of this study might prove useful to the study of contemporary groups of immigrants and other travelers who adapt onomastically to their

host countries. The name adaptations of Chinese students set on studying in the United States and Syrian refugees seeking to resettle in Europe can be examined to determine if the patterns discussed above are applicable. In addition, whereas Jews were historically overrepresented in documented name changes, other ethnic groups who immigrated to the United States from non- anglophone countries exhibited onomastic Americanization. Therefore, the methods and findings of this study may be able to help researchers better identify twentieth-century immigrants from other Mediterranean countries prior to and following name changes. This study can also contribute to the field of ethnology, as scholars studying the integration of immigrants may find the above data on first name changes a valuable addition to an otherwise little explored subject.

Modern Jews in the United States can rely on the data above to aid them in bestowing Hebrew names on their children using genealogical records, and in searching for common Hebraic-

English correspondences in order to select historically appropriate names.

APPENDIX A: HEBRAIC NAMES APPEARING ON PASSENGER LISTS AND THEIR

AMERICANIZED FORMS ON PETITIONS FOR NATURALIZATION

List of Yiddish Name Americanizations

Presumably Relevant Entry in Number of Americanized Number of Beider (2001) Occurrences Name on Petition Occurrences

Adolf 2 Adolf 3 Adolph 1 Alex 1 Aleksander 3 Sam 2

Asne 1 Jennie 1

Abe 5

Abraham 15

Avrom 28 Abram 4

Albert 2

Alfred 1

Azarye 1 Lazar 1

Anna 1

Beatrice 1

Bessie 11

Betty 2

Paula 1

Basheve 26 Paulen 1 Paulene 1

Pauline 4 Pearl 2 Pola 1

Sadie 1 Benjamin 1 Bentsiyen 2 Bension 1 Ben 1 Benyomen 7 Benjamin 6 Ber 4 Barnett 1

Benny 1 Berel 1 Boris 1

Bernd 1 Bernard 1 Bella 1 Bertha 6 Berte 9 Bessie 1

Betty 1 Beckie 1 Becky 1

Bella 6

Beyle 16 Bessie 5

Betty 1

Dora 1

Rebecca 1

Annie 1

Beatrice 1

Bella 2

Blume 8 Bessie 1

Blima 1

Mary 1

Susan 1

Ben 3

Benjamin 1

Borekh 7 Boris 1 Boruch 1 Morris 1 Beckie 1

Bertha 4 Brayne 9 Bessie 2 Brajne 1

Brenice 1

Beatrice 1 Bertha 1 Brokhe 4 Bessie 1

Brucha 1 Beatrice 1 Bune 3 Bessie 1 Bina 1

Daniel 1 Daniel 1 Daykhe 1 Dora 1 Diana 1

Dina 4 Dine 7 Jean 1

Tinnie 1

Dobre 2 Dora 2

Dora 7 Dore 9 Dorothy 2

Dave 1

David 14 Dovid 17 Harold 1

Irving 1

Dora 11

Doris 2 Dvoyre 15 Gloria 1

Jennie 1

Ephraim 1 Efroyem 3 Frank 2 Eli 1 Elka 1

Ele 6 Elsie 2 Esther 1 Rose 1

Elieyzer, Eluzor 10 Leon 1

Lou 1 Louis 8 Betty 1

Elsie 2 Ethel 1 Elisheve 8 Lena 1 Libbie 1

Lillie 2 Eli 1 Elye 3 Eliahu 1

Morris 1

Anna 1

Clara 1

Edith 1

Ella 1

Ester 4

Ester 44 Esther 30

Estra 1

Ethel 2

Ette 1

Sadye 1

Stella 1

Adele 4 Eydl 5 Eva 1

Estelle 1 Fanye 2 Fannie 1 Fayvush 2 Philip 2 Felye 1 Gertrude 1

Fannie 12 Fanny 11 Feyge 29 Fay 1

Feige 1

Florence 2 Frances 2 Fishl 1 Philip 1

Florye 1 Sadie 1 Frances 1 Franye 2 Irene 1 Fannie 2

Freda 1 Freyde 13 Freida 2 Frieda 8

Florence 1

Fride 7 Frieda 5

Rheta 1

Fannie 7

Fanny 1 Frumet 10 Fay 1

Freda 1

Charles 2

Donald 1 Gdalye 5 George 1

Morris 1

Gershn 2 Harry 2

Anna 1

Gertrude 1

Ginendl 5 Gussie 1 Hannah 1 Nesie 1 Anna 1

Dora 1 Golde 11 Golda 1 Golde 2

Goldie 4

Gussie 2 Gertrude 1 Grune 2 Gussie 1

Augusta 1 Guste 2 Gusty 1 Genia 1 Gertrude 4

Gerty 1 Gute 15 Gittel 1 Gussie 6

Ida 1

Jennie 1

Heyle 1 Helen 1

Hilde 1 Hulda 1

Anna 1

Helen 2

Hinde 6 Hinda 1

Ida 1

Sarah 1

Hirsh 14 Harry 14

Hitsele 1 Hazel 1

Anna 1

Helen 1 Hodes 4 Ida 1

Odes 1 Hosheye 1 Harry 1 Ignats 1 Ignatz 1 Ikheskl 2 Charles 2

Karl 1 Ikusiel 2 Sam 1 Charles 1 Ishaye 4 Sam 2

Sol 1 Asrel 1 Harry 1

Irving 3 Isidore 1 Israel 4 Isreal 1 Isroel 18 Issie 1 Izrael 1 Louis 1

Morris 1

Sam 1

Sol 2

Charles 1

Edward 1

Harris 1

Ike 2

Irving 6 Itskhok 22 Isaac 3

Isidor 3

Isidore 3

Izzy 1

Samuel 1

Kalmen 1 Kalman 1

Clara 2 Keyle 4 Kaile 1 Katie 1 Ann 1

Anna 51 Khane 91 Anne 4 Annie 14

Chana 2

Clara 1 Eva 1 Evelyn 1

Hana 1 Hannah 2 Helen 2 Irene 1

Irma 1 Jean 2 Jennie 1

Jessie 1

Lena 1

May 1

Nancy 1

Ona 1

Rachel 1

Eva 10

Eve 1 Khave 14 Evelyn 2

Ida 1

Anna 1

Clara 7

Dora 1

Esther 1

Helen 2 Khaye 35 Ida 19 Irene 1 Sadie 1

Sarah 1 Taube 1 Chaim 1 Khayem 16 Charles 1

Harry 3 Herman 1 Hyman 9

Isadore 1 Claire 1 Klore 11 Clara 10 Gertrude 1 Kreyne 3 Kate 2 Lillian 1 Lane 2 Lizza 1

Abraham 1

Leib 1

Leib 21 Leo 1

Leon 5

Louis 13

Lena 3 Lene 4 Lillian 1

Anna 1

Laura 2

Leah 2

Leha 1

Lela 1

Leye 31 Lena 10

Leonore 1

Lillian 6 Lillie 3 Lilly 3 Lina 1

Bertha 1 Lena 1 Libe 6 Lillian 2

Lillie 1

Lilly 1 Lipold 1 Leo 1 Lote 1 Lillie 1

Louis 2 Ludvik 3 Ludwik 1 Malke 1 Millie 1 Malke 11 Mollie 7 Molly 2 Mamle 1 Mollie 1

Mano 1

Max 4 Man 8 Mendel 2

Samuel 1

Margolies 1 Margie 1

Joe 1

Marcus 2 Markus 5 Mark 1

Max 1

Marte 1 Martha 1

Martin 1 Menakhem 2 Morris 1

Mae 1

Marion 1 Menukhe 4 Mildred 1 Minnie 1 Max 1 Meer 1 Meyer 7 Meyer 4 Morris 1 Mamie 1 Meyte 4 Mary 1

Mete 1 Minnie 1 Mikhl 2 Max 2

Mary 1 Mikhle 2 Minnie 1 Minna 1 Mine 8 Minnie 7

Amelia 1 Mae 1 Mariem 1

Marion 2

Martha 1

Mary 9

Miryem 27 Mildred 1

Millie 1

Minnie 2

Miriam 1

Mirlia 1

Mollie 5

Molly 1

Max 4 Mortkhe 5 Morris 1

Maurice 2

Moe 1

Moyshe 30 Morris 22 Moses 2 Murray 3 Moyshe 1 Mae 1

Nakhshn 1 Nathan 1 Ann 1 Nekhame 12 Anna 5

Naomi 1

Nechame 1 Nettie 3 Norma 1

Nettie 1 Nete 2 Netty 1 Nikolaus 1 Nicholas 1 Nisn 1 Irving 1

Naman 1 Nokhum 4 Nathan 2 Nochum 1

Nosn 3 Nathan 3

Nathan 2 Noyekh 3 Noah 1

Aaron 5

Aron 1

Orn 9 Arthur 1

Harry 1

Samuel 1

Oscar 1 Osher 2 Osher 1

Ovadye 1 Ovadia 1

Pave 1 Dorothy 1

Pavel 2 Paul 2

Josefine 1

Pepi 3 Pauline 1 Peppy 1 Barney 1 Perets 3 Percy 1

Peretz 1 Beatrice 1 Perle 10 Pauline 7

Pearl 1

Pole 1 Benjamin 1 Peysekh 2 Philip 1

Paul 3 Pinkhes 4 Peter 1 Ray 1 Raytse 2 Rose 1

Regina 4 Rose 1 Reyne 7 Ruth 1

Victoria 1

Beatrice 1

Beckie 5

Becky 1

Betty 2

Ethel 1

Eva 1

Jennie 1

Lillian 1

Rae 1

Ray 2

Rifke 41 Reba 1

Rebeca 1

Rebecca 7

Rebecka 1 Regina 3 Rena 1 Rhea 1

Rifka 2 Rita 1 Rose 4

Ruth 2

Ryfka 1 Rifoel 1 Philip 1 Ida 1 Rode 2 Rose 1 Ida 1 Rachel 4 Rachela 1

Rae 6 Ray 5 Rokhl 56 Regena 1

Rhea 1

Rose 31

Ruchel 1

Ruth 5

Rae 1

Raisa 1

Royze 61 Ray 1

Rose 57

Rosie 1

Ruvn 4 Rubin 4

Sabke 1 Sylvia 1

Sadie 1

Sale 4 Sali 1

Sylvia 2

Sason 1 Sason 1 Jean 5 Jennie 10 Sheyne 18 Sadie 1

Sarah 1 Shendel 1 Cherie 1 Shifre 4 Sadie 1

Shifra 1 Sophie 1 Shimen 1 Sam 1

Benjamin 1 Salomon 1 Sam 4 Samuel 3 Shloyme 18 Saul 1 Sol 2 Solomon 5

Zalman 1

Shmarya 1 Sam 1

Max 1

Shmuel 16 Sam 8

Samuel 7

Charles 1

Sholem 4 Sam 2

Sol 1

Sadie 1 Shoshane 2 Stella 1

Shoyel 1 Sam 1

Shprintse 1 Sadie 1

Cynthia 1

Sadie 1 Sime 4 Samuel 1 Sylvia 1 Simkhe 1 Sam 1 Skharye 1 Zachary 1

Sone 1 Sonia 4 Sofle 13 Sonya 1

Sophie 5

Sylvia 2 Annie 1 Cecelia 1

Celia 5 Sadie 10 Sally 3 Sara 2

Sarah 33 Sore 75 Sareh 1 Selma 2

Shirley 5

Sonia 2

Sophie 6

Sora 1

Sylvia 3

Emma 1

Tamare 3 Tamara 1

Tillie 1

Teyne 1 Tillie 1

Pauline 1 Tislave 2 Tessie 1

Ida 1 Toybe 12 Tillie 11

Celia 1

Tsherne 3 Jean 1 Jeanne 1 Bessie 1 Celia 7 Tsilye 11 Rebecca 1 Sylvia 2 Helen 1 Tsine 2 Kate 1

Celia 4 Tsipoyre 9 Pauline 4 Ruth 1

Celia 3 Cillia 1 Tsivye 9 Shirley 1 Sylvia 4

Beckie 1 Viola 1 Vite 5 Violet 1

Witla 1

Witty 1

William 8 Volf 10 Wolf 2

Yadzhe 1 Yetta 1

Jacques 1

Hyman 1

Yakef 17 Isidore 1

Jack 7

Jacob 7

Yakhne 1 Anna 1

Anita 1

Annie 1

Enta 1 Yentl 7 Ethel 1 Henrietta 1 Yetta 2 Yokhved 1 Ida 1

Yore 1 Yette 1 Harold 1 Yoshue 2 Iosua 1

Yoye 1 Julia 1

Yoyel 1 Joseph 1 Joe 6 Josef 3 Yoysef 24 Joseph 14 Sol 1 Yude 1 Julius 1 Ada 1

Dora 1 Edith 1 Elaine 1

Ethel 2

Henrietta 1

Ida 1 Yudes 17 Janne 1

Jessie 1

Julia 1

Nettie 1

Sonia 1

Yetta 3

Yetti 1

Jennie 1

Zelde 3 Sadie 1

Selda 1

Selig 1

Zeelig 1 Zelikman 4 Zeilig 1 Zelig 1 Zisl 1 Jennie 1

Jennie 1 Zlate 2 Zena 1 Jess 1 Zusman 3 Julius 1

Sol 1

APPENDIX B: AMERICANIZED FORMS ON PETITIONS FOR NATURALIZATION AND

THEIR YIDDISH CORRESPONDENCES ON PASSENGER LISTS

List of Americanized Names

Americanized Name on Petition Number of Presumably Relevant Entry in Number of for Naturalization Occurrences Beider (2001) Occurrences

Aaron, Aron 6 Orn 6 Avrom 24 Abe, Abraham, Abram 25 Leib 1

Ada 1 Yudes 1

Adele 4 Eydl 4

Adolf, Adolph 3 Adolf 3

Albert 2 Avrom 2

Alex 1 Aleksander 1

Alfred 1 Avrom 1

Amelia 1 Miryem 1

Anita 1 Yentl 1

Basheve 1

Blume 1

Ester 1

Ginendl 2 Golde 1

Hinde 1 Ann, Anna, Anne, Annie, Hana, 94 Hannah, Nancy, Ona Hodes 1 Khane 75 Khaye 1

Leye 1 Nekhame 6 Sore 1

Yakhne 1

Yentl 1 Arthur 1 Orn 1 Asrel 1 Isroel 1

Ginendl 1 Golde 2 Auguste, Gussie, Gusty 12 Grune 1 Guste 2

Gute 6 Barnett 1 Ber 1 Barney 1 Perets 1

Basheve 1

Blume 1

Brokhe 1 Beatrice 6 Bune 1

Perle 1

Rifke 1

Beyle 3

Brayne 1 Beckie, Becky, Reba, Rebecca, 25 Rebecka, Rifka, Ryfka Rifke 19 Tsilye 1

Vite 1

Berte 1

Bella 9 Beyle 6 Blume 2

Bentsiyen 1 Benyomen 6 Ber 1 Ben, Benjamin, Benny 15 Borekh 4 Peysekh 1 Shloyme 1 Bension 1 Bentsiyen 1

Berel 1 Ber 1

Bernard 1 Bernd 1 Berte 6 Brayne 4 Bertha 12 Brokhe 1 Libe 1 Basheve 13 Berte 2

Beyle 6 Blume 1 Brayne 2

Brokhe 1 Bessie, Betty, Elsie Libbie, Lizza 36 Bune 1 Ele 2

Elisheve 4

Lane 1

Rifke 2

Tsilye 1

Bina 1 Bune 1

Blima 1 Blume 1

Ber 1 Boris 2 Borekh 1

Boruch 1 Borekh 1

Brajne 1 Brayne 1

Brenice 1 Brayne 1

Brucha 1 Brokhe 1 Sore 6 Tsherne 1 Cecelia, Celia, Cillia 21 Tsilye 7

Tsipoyre 4 Tsivye 4 Chaim 1 Khayem 1

Chana 2 Khane 2

Gdalye 2 Ikheskl 2 Ikusiel 1

Charles, Karl 9 Ishaye 1 Itskhok 1 Khayem 1 Sholem 1

Cherie 1 Shifre 1 Ester 1 Keyle 2

Claire, Clara 22 Khane 1

Khaye 7

Klore 10

Cynthia 1 Sime 1

Daniel 1 Daniel 1

Dave, David 15 Dovid 15

Diana 1 Dine 1

Dina 4 Dine 4

Donald 1 Gdalye 1

Beyle 1

Daykhe 1

Dobre 2

Dore 7 Dora 25 Dvoyre 11

Golde 1 Khaye 1 Yudes 1 Doris 2 Dvoyre 2

Dore 2 Dorothy 3 Pave 1 Ester 1 Edith 2 Yudes 1

Edward 1 Itskhok 1 Elaine 1 Yudes 1 Ele 1 Eli 2 Elye 1 Eliahu 1 Elye 1 Elias 1 Avrom 1 Elka 1 Ele 1

Ella 1 Ester 1 Emma 1 Tamare 1 Enta 1 Yentl 1

Ephraim 1 Efroyem 1

Ester 1

Estelle, Stella 3 Fanye 1

Shoshane 1

Ele 1

Ester, Esther, Estra 37 Ester 36

Khaye 1

Elisheve 1

Ester 2

Ethel 7 Rifke 1

Yentl 1

Yudes 2

Ette 1 Ester 1

Eydl 1

Khane 2 Eva, Eve, Evelyn 17 Khave 13 Rifke 1 Fanye 1

Feyge 26 Fannie, Fanny, Fay, Frances 39 Franye 1 Freyde 2

Frumet 9

Feige 1 Feyge 1 Feyge 2 Florence 3 Fride 1

Frank 2 Efroyem 2 Freyde 11 Freda, Freida, Frieda 17 Fride 5 Frumet 1

Genia 1 Gute 1 George 1 Gdalye 1 Felye 1

Ginendl 1

Gertrude, Gerty 9 Grune 1

Gute 5

Kreyne 1

Gittel 1 Gute 1

Gloria 1 Dvoyre 1

Golda, Golde, Goldie 7 Golde 7

Dovid 1 Harold 2 Yoshue 1

Gershn 2

Hirsh 14

Hosheye 1 Harris, Harry 23 Isroel 1

Khayem 3

Orn 1 Hazel 1 Hitsele 1 Heyle 1 Hinde 2

Hodes 1 Helen 9 Khane 2 Khaye 2

Tsine 1

Yentl 1 Henrietta 2 Yudes 1 Hinda 1 Hinde 1

Hilde 1 Hulde 1 Khayem 9 Hyman 10 Yakef 1 Gute 1

Hinde 1 Hodes 1 Khave 1

Khaye 19 Ida 28 Rode 1

Rokhl 1

Toybe 1

Yokhved 1

Yudes 1

Ignatz 1 Ignats 1

Ike, Isaac 5 Itskhok 5

Franye 1

Irene 3 Khane 1

Khaye 1

Irma 1 Khane 1

Dovid 1

Isroel 3 Irving 11 Itskhok 6 Nisn 1 Khayem 1

Isadore, Isidor, Isidore, Issie, Isroel 2 11 Izzy Itskhok 7 Yakef 1 Israel, Isreal, Izrael 6 Isroel 1

Jack 7 Yakef 7

Jacob, Jacques 8 Yakef 8 Janne 1 Yudes 1 Dine 1

Khane 2 Jean, Jeanne 10 Sheyne 5 Tsherne 2 Asne 1

Dvoyre 1 Gute 1 Khane 1

Jennie 18 Rifke 1

Sheyne 10

Zelde 1

Zisl 1

Zlate 1

Jess 1 Zusman 1

Khane 1 Jessie 2 Yudes 1

Markus 1

Joe, Josef, Joseph 25 Yoyel 1

Yoysef 23

Josua 1 Yoshue 1

Yoye 1 Julia 2 Yudes 1

Yude 1 Julius 2 Zusman 1 Kaile 1 Keyle 1 Kalman 1 Kalmen 1

Keyle 1 Kate, Katie 4 Kreyne 2 Tsine 1

Laura 2 Leye 2

Lazar 1 Azarye 1 Leah, Leha 3 Leye 3 Leib 1 Leib 1

Lela 1 Leye 1 Elisheve 1 Khane 1 Lena, Lina 17 Lene 3

Leye 11 Libe 1 Elieyzer/Elozer 1

Leo, Leon 8 Leib 6

Lipold 1

Leonore 1 Leye 1

Elisheve 2

Lane 1

Lene 1

Lillian, Lillie, Lilly 22 Leye 12

Libe 4

Lote 1

Rifke 1

Elieyzer/Elozer 9

Isroel 1 Lou, Louis, Ludwik 26 Leib 13

Ludvik 3

Khane 1 Menukhe 1 Mae, May 4 Miryem 1 Moyshe 1

Malke 1 Malke 1

Blume 1 Mamie, Mariem, Marion, Mary, 33 Miriam, Mirlia, Mollie, Molly Malke 9 Mamle 1

Menukhe 1 Meyte 2 Mikhle 1

Miryem 20 Mano 1 Man 1 Marcus, Mark 3 Markus 3 Margolies 1 Margie, Rita 2 Rifke 1 Marte 1 Martha 2 Miryem 1

Martin 1 Menakhem 1

Borekh 1

Elye 1

Gdalye 1

Isroel 1 Maurice, Moe, Morris 32 Menakhem 1

Meyer 1

Mortkhe 1

Moyshe 25

Man 4

Markus 1

Max 13 Mikhl 2

Mortkhe 4

Shmuel 1

Meer, Meyer 5 Meyer 5 Mendel 2 Man 2 Mete 1 Meyte 1 Malke 1

Mildred, Millie 4 Menukhe 1 Miryem 2 Menukhe 1 Minna, Minnie 13 Meyte 1

Mikhle 1 Mine 8 Miryem 2

Moses 2 Moyshe 2 Murray 3 Moyshe 3 Naman 1 Nokhum 1 Naomi 1 Nekhame 1

Nakhshn 1 Nokhum 2 Nathan 8 Nosn 3

Noyekh 2

Nechame 1 Nekhame 1

Nesie 1 Ginendl 1

Nekhame 3

Nettie, Netty 6 Nete 2

Yudes 1

Nicholas 1 Nikolaus 1

Noah 1 Noyekh 1

Nochum 1 Nokhum 1

Norma 1 Nekhame 1

Odes 1 Hodes 1

Oscar 1 Osher 1

Osher 1 Osher 1

Ovadia 1 Ovadye 1

Pavel 2 Paul 5 Pinkhes 3

Basheve 8

Pepi 1 Paula, Paulen, Paulene, Pauline, 22 Pola, Pole Perle 2 Tislave 1 Tsipoyre 4

Pearl 3 Basheve 2

Perle 1 Peppy 1 Pepi 1 Percy 1 Perets 1

Peretz 1 Perets 1 Peter 1 Pinkhes 1 Fayvush 2 Fishl 1 Philip 5 Peysekh 1 Rifoel 1

Khane 1

Raytse 1 Rachel, Rachela, Rae, Ray, 24 Ruchel Rifke 3 Rokhl 17

Royze 2

Reyne 4

Regena, Regina 8 Rifke 3

Rokhl 1

Rena 1 Rifke 1

Rifke 1 Rhea 2 Rokhl 1

Rheta 1 Fride 1

Ele 1

Raytse 1 Reyne 1

Rose, Rosie 97 Rifke 4 Rode 1 Rokhl 31

Royze 58 Rubin 4 Ruvn 4 Reyne 1 Ruth 9 Rifke 2

Rokhl 5

Tsipoyre 1

Basheve 1

Ester 1

Florye 1 Hinde 1 Khaye 2

Sale 2 Sadie, Sadye, Sali, Sally, Sara, 65 Sarah, Sareh, Sora Sheyne 2 Shifre 1 Shoshane 1

Shprintse 1 Sime 1

Sore 50

Zelde 1

Ishaye 1

Isroel 2

Shloyme 9 Salomon, Sol, Zalman 15 Sholem 1

Yoysef 1

Zusman 1

Aleksander 2

Ikusiel 1

Ishaye 2 Isroel 1

Itskhok 1 Man 1 Sam 38 Orn 1

Shimen 1 Shloyme 7 Shmarya 1 Shmuel 15

Sholem 2

Shoyel 1 Simkhe 2 Sason 1 Sason 1

Saul 1 Shloyme 1 Selda 1 Zelde 1 Selig, Zeelig, Zeilig, Zelig 4 Zelikman 4 Selma 2 Sore 2

Shendel 1 Sheyne 1 Shifra 1 Shifre 1 Sore 5 Shirley 6 Tsivye 1

Shifre 1

Sofle 11 Sone, Sonia, Sonya, Sophie 21 Sore 8

Yudes 1

Susan 1 Blume 1

Sabke 1

Sale 2

Sime 1

Sylvia 15 Sofle 2

Sore 3

Tsilye 2

Tsivye 4

Tamara 1 Tamare 1

Taube 1 Khaye 1 Tessie 1 Tislave 1 Tanare 1 Tillie 13 Teyne 1

Toybe 11 Tinnie 1 Dine 1 Victoria 1 Reyne 1

Viola, Violet 2 Vite 2

William 8 Volf 8 Witla, Witty 2 Vite 2 Wolf 2 Volf 2

Yadzhe 1 Yentl 2 Yetta, Yette, Yetti 8 Yore 1 Yudes 4

Zachary 1 Skharye 1 Zena 1 Zlate 1

APPENDIX C: HEBRAIC NAMES APPEARING ON PASSENGER LISTS AND THEIR

ASSUMED EQUIVALENTS IN BEIDER (2001)

List of Presumed Yiddish Name Equivalents

Presumably Relevant Phonetically or Orthographically Similar Transcribed Name Number of Entry in Beider (2001) Variation or Reference in Beider (2001) from Passenger List Occurrences

Adolf 1 Adolf Adolf Adolph 2

English cognate Alex 1

Aleksander Cender 1 Sender Sender 1

Asne Asne Asne 1

Abraham Abraham 10

Abram Abram 14 Avramets Abromas 1 Avrom Avram Avram 1 Avroom 1 Avrum Awrum 1

Azarye Azarya Azaria 1 Bashe Baache 1 Basheve Batshe Bachy 1 Bashe Basche 2

Basheve Baschewa 1 Bashe Bashe 1 Basia 2 Basye Basse 2 Pese Pesa 2 Peshe Pesche 2 Pese Pese 1

Pesele Pesel 1 Pesia 2 Pesye Pesie 2

Pessie 2

Peselin Psilja 1

Schewa 1 Basheve Sheve Schewe 1

Bension 1 Bentsiyen Bentsion Benzion 1

Benjamin 5 English cognate Benyomen Benny 1

Benyumen Beyume 1

Ber Ber 1

Berel 1 Ber Berele Beril 1

Berl Berl 1

Bernd German cognate Bernhard 1

Berta 4 Berte Berte Bertha 5 Beila 2 Beyle Beile 5

Beylke Beilke 1 Beyle Bejila 1 Beyle Bejla 1

Belkhe Belke 1

Bele Bella 4 Beyle Biele 1 Blima 2 Blime Blinde 2 Blume Bluma 3 Blume Blume 2 Berco 1 Burke Bercu 1 Borekh Boshke Beutschek 1 Borekh Boruch 3

Burikh Burach 1

Brayne Brajna 2

Brayne Brane Brama 1

Brandle Brandel 1

Broune Brauna 1

Brayndl Breindl 1 Brayne Brayne Breine 2

Brendl Brendel 1

Brucha 1 Brukhe Brokhe Bruche 2

Brukhtshe Brushka 1

Bone Bene 1

Bune Bina 1 Bine Bine 1

Daniel Daniel Daniel 1 Daykhe Daykhe Dacha 1 Dina 5 Dine Dine Dinah 1

Dinye Dynia 1 Dobe Doba 1 Dobre Dobre Dobre 1

Dore Dore Dora 9

David David 11 English cognate Davis 1 Dovid David Dawid 4

Duvid Duvid 2 English cognate Deborah 1 Drbeire 1 Dveyre Dweira 1

Dweire 5 Dwoira 1 Dvoyre Dwoire 2 Dvoyre Dwojra 1

Dwojre 1

Dwore 1 Dvore Dworia 1

Afroim Afroim 1 Efroyem Froyke Frojke 1

Ele Ela 1

Eltskhe Eliska 1 Ele Elka 2 Elke Elke 1

Eluzer Eluzor 1

Laizor 1 Layzer Layzer 1 Elieyzer/Elozer Leiser 2

Leyzer Leizer 4 Lejzer 1 English cognate Betty 1 Elizabet Elise 1

Else Elsa 2 Elisheve Lize Leise 1 English cognate Libbie 1

Lize Liza 2

Ele Eli 1 Elye Hebrew cognate Eliahu 1 Elye Elie 1

Estere Eastera 1 Etye Ecia 1 Etl Eittel 1 Esfir Esfir 1

Ester Ester Ester 20 Estere Estera 7 Ester Esther 11

Etke Etka 1

Etl Ettel 1

Adele Adele 1

Eyde Eda 1

Eydl Eydl Eidel 1

Eydle Ejdla 1

Aydle Idele 1

Fanye Fania Fania 1

Fanye Stefa Stefka 1

Fajwel 1 Fayvush Fayvl Feivel 1

Felya Felya Fela 1

Faygl Faigel 1

Fayge Fajga 1

Fega 1 Feyge Feiga 10 Feyge Feige 15 Fejga 1

Fishl Fishl Fiszel 1 Florye Flora Flora 1 Franciszka Franziska 1 Franye Franye Fren 1

Frade Frade 1 Fradke Fradic 1 Fradle Fradla 1

Freida 5 Freyde Freyde Freide 3 Freidy 1 Freude Freude 1

Freyde Freda 1 Frieda 4 Fride Fride Friede 1

Fridl Friedel 1

Frime Frime 2

Frimet Frimet 1

Frumetle Frula 1 Frumet Fruma 2 Frume Frume 3

Frime Fryma 1

Gdale Gedale 1

Gdalye Gedalye Gedalie 2

Gedl Gelel 1

Gdalye Gdale Gidali 1

Gershn Gerih 1 Gershn Gershon Gerschon 1

Genye Gena 1

Genendle Genendla 1 Ginendl Genia 1 Genye Geniax 1 Nesye Nesie 1

Gohda 1 Golda Golda 2 Golde Golde Golde 5

English cognate Goldie 2

Grune Grunye Grunia 2 Gusti 1 Guste Guste Gusty 1

Gitl Gitel 3 Gitke Gitka 1 Gitle Gitla 2 Gitlia 1 Gute Gitli Gitlja 1 Gitl Gittel 5 Gude Gude 1

Gute Gute 1

Heyle Heyle Hela 1

Hilde Hulda Hulda 1

Hinda 3 Hinde Hinde Hinde 2

Hersh Hersch 6

Herschel 1 Hershl Herschl 1 Hirsh Hersh Hersz 4

Herts Herz 1

Hirsh Hirsch 1

Hitsele Hitse Hitza 1

Hode Hoda 1

Hudye Hudie 1 Hodes Odes Odes 1 Udl Udel 1 Hosheye Hoshey Cjuisha 1 Ignats Ignats Ignac 1

Chaskel 1 Ikheskl Khaskl Chaskiel 1 Kushel Kushier 1 Ikusiel Kusiel Kusiel 1

Shaye Schaie 1 Shayke Schaike 1 Ishaye Shea 1 Shaye Szaja 1 Israel 6 Israel Israil 1 Isreal 1

Isroel Izrael Izrael 2 English cognate Izzie 1 Sroel Sruel 2

Srol Srul 5

Ayzik Eisig 1

Itsik Icek 1

Itske Icko 2

Itsik Icyk 1

Ike 2 English cognate Isaac 2

Isaak Isaak 1

Izkhen Isakino 1

Itskhok Isak Isek 1

Itsik Itic 1

Itske Itko 1

Itskhak Itzchok 1

Itsik Itzig 2

Itsik Itzik 2 Itsik Itzyk 1 Izak Izsak 1 Itskhak Iztreck 1

Kalmen Kalmen Kalman 1 Kayle Kajla 1 Keyle Keile 2 Keyle Kiela 1

Anna 23 English cognate Anne 2 Annie 7

Hande Chadna 1 Chana 12 Khane Chane 22 Khanye Chanie 1

Khantse Chanzie 1 Chasia 1 Chasie 1 Khashe Chassia 1

Khane Chassie 1

Ene Ena 1

Enye Ennie 1

Hane Hana 3

Henye Hanie 1

Hanna 2 Hane Hanu 1

Hendle Hendel 1

Hene Hene 4

Henye Henie 1

Hene Henne 1

Khane Khana 1

Chava 1

Chave 2 Khave Khave Chawa 3 Chawe 3 English cognate Eva 5

Chai 1 Chaie 4 Khaye Khaye Chaja 10

Chaje 12

Chajke 1 Khayke Chake 1 Chaya 3

Khaye Chaye 2 Khaja 1 Khayim Chaim 12 Khayem Chajem 1 Khayem Chajm 1 Khaym Chiam 2

Claire 1

Klore Clara 9

Klara 1

Kreime 1 Kreyne Kreyne Kreina 1

Kreine 1

Lanke Lenke 1 Lane Lore Lora 1

Lena 2

Lene Lene Leni 1 Lina 1

Lebe Lebe 1

Leyb Leib 9

Leybe Leibe 2

Leybl Leibel 1 Leyb Leybish Leibish 1

Leybush Leibusch 1 Leyb Lejb 1 Leybe Lejba 1

Leo Leo 1 Leyb Leon Leon 2 Leyb Lieb 1 Leye Leyke Laic 1

Leye Laja 3 Lea 8 Lea Leah 6

Leia 1 Leye Leie 3 Leyke Leika 2 Leja 5 Leye Leje 1 Leyelke Lollic 1 Liba 1

Libe Libe 1 Libe Liebe 3

Lube Liouba 1

Lipold English cognate Leopold 1

Lote Lote Loti 1

English cognate Louis 2 Ludvik Ludvik Ludwig 1

Malka 4

Malke Malke 4

Malke Malkic 1

Male Mallie 1

Malke Molka 1

Mamle Mamtshe Mancia 1

Mano Mano 1 Man Mendl Mendel 7 Margolies Margolis Margit 1 Markus Marcus 2 Markus Mark Mark 1

Markus Markus 2 Marte English cognate Martha 1 Menachem 1 Menakhem Menakhem Menahem 1

Menye Menia 1 Menukhe Menukhe Menucha 1 Mnikhe Mnicha 1

Mayer Majer 1 Meier 1 Meyer Meyer Mejer 2 Meyer 3

Matle Matel 1 Meite 1 Meyte Meyte Meitie 1

Meytl Mietel 1

Mekhl Mechel 1

Mikhle Micha 1 Mikhl Mikhl Michel 1

Mikhle Michle 1

Mikhe Micha 1 Mikhle Mikhle Michle 1

Mine Mime 1

Mina Mina 2

Mine Mindle Mindla 3

Mine Mine 1

Minke Ninka 1

Manya Mania 2

Maryakhe/Marele Marchle 1

Marya Maria 4 Mariem 1 Maryam Marjam 1 Miryem Maryem Marjem 3

Marya Marjia 1 English cognate Mary 2 Mashe Mascha 1

Masye Masia 1

Mere Mere 1 Merke Mirke 1 Mirla 2 Mirele Mirlia 1 Muske Miska 1 English cognate Mollie 3 Mashke Moschke 1

Mirele Myrel 1 Mortkhay Maurycy 1 Mordkhe Mordche 1

Mortkhe Mordukh Morduch 1

Mote Mote 1

Motye Motie 1

Meyshe Meische 1

Moischa 1 Moyshe Moische 7

Mosye Moise 1

Moishe 1 Moyshe Mojsche 1

Moshe Moscha 1

Mozes Moses 8

Moyshe Moshke Moshko 1

Mosye Mosje 1

Moshke Moszko 1

Moushe 1 Movsha 1 Movshe Mowscha 1 Mowsche 1

Mowsza 1 Moshe Moschhe 1 Nakhmen Nakhman Nachman 1

Nakhshn Nakhshon Nakshon 1

Nakhame Nachama 2 Nekhe Necha 1 Nechama 3

Nekhame Nechame 2 Nekhame Nechana 1 Nekhe Neche 1 Nekhume Nechuma 1

Nekhame Nikhanna 1 Neti 1 Nete Nete Nettie 1

Nikolaus Russian cognate Nicolae 1

Nisn Nisn Nissen 1

Nakhum Nahum 1

Nokhum Nokhem Nochem 1

Nukhim Nuchim 1

English cognate Nathan 1

Nosn Nosen Nosen 1

Note Nota 1

Noakh Noach 1

Noyekh English cognate Noah 1

Noekh Noich 1

English cognate Aaron 2

Arke Arke 1

Orn Aron Aron 4

Ahron Haron 1 Orlik Horlik 1 Osher Osher 1 Osher Usher Usher 1

Ovadye Ovadya Ovadia 1 Pave Pave Pava 1 Pavel English cognate Paul 2

Pepi English cognate Josephine 1

Pepie 1 Pepi Peppi 1 Berets Barris 1

Perets Peretz 1 Perets Peritz 1 Perl Perl 4 Perle Perla 5 Perle Perle 1 Peisach 1 Peysekh Peysakh Pejach 1

Pinkus Pincus 1

Pinkhes Pinye Pinie 2

Pinkus Pinkus 1

Rayle Rejla 1 Raytse Raytshe Rysche 1

Reyne English cognate Regina 7

Rebecca 6

English cognate Rebecka 2

Rebeka 1

Rifca 1

Rifke Rifka 2

Rifke 3

Rive Riva 3

Rivke Rivke 1 Rifke Riwha 1 Riwka 3 Rivke Riwke 6 Riwkey 1

Rive Ruve 1 Rifke Ryfka 4 Rivke Rynka 1

Rive Rywa 1

Rivke Rywka 4 Rifoel Reful Reful 1 Rode Rode 1 Rode Rude Rude 1 English cognate Rachel 7 Rashle Rachela 4 Rashl Rachil 1

English cognate Rae 2 Rehl Rahil 1 English cognate Ray 1

Rechel 1

Rekhl Rechil 1

Reichel 1

Rokhl Rocha 1 Rokhe Roche 1

Rokhl Rochel 8

Rokhele Rochellia 1

Rokhl Rochil 1

Rochla 2

Rokhle Rochle 1

Rochlja 1

Rukhl Ruchel 14

Rukhle Ruchla 7

Reyze Raisa 1

Reyzle Raisle 1 Reyze Raize 1 Razle Razel 1 Royze Reyze Reise 2

Reyzl Reisel 2 Reyzelin Reizeln 1 Reyzle Reizla 1

Reyze Rejza 1

Resa 1 Reyze Rezi 1 Royze Rojza 1

Rosa 11 Roze Rose 24 English cognate Rosie 1 Roze Roza 6

Royzele Rozalia 2 Rozi 1 Reyzye Rozia 1

Rozkhen Ruzena 1

Rubin Rubin 1

Ruven Ruven 1 Ruvn Ruvin 1 Ruvn Ruwin 1

Sabke Sabina Sabina 1

Sali 2 Sale Sale Salie 1

Salomea Salomeja 1

Sason Sason Saason 1

Sheyne Scheina 2

Sheyndl Scheindel 6

Sheyndle Scheindla 1

Scheine 5 Sheyne Sheyne Sheina 1 Sheyndele Shindelai 1 Sheyndle Szajndla 1 Shendle Szendla 1

Shifre Schifre 1 Shifra 1 Shifre Shifra Shifrah 1

Szyfra 1

Salamon 1 Salomon Salmon 3 Salomon 2

Schloime 1 Shloyme Schlojme 1 Shloyme Zelman Selman 1 Shloyme Sloime 1

Salomon Soloman 1 English cognate Solomon 5 Shlame Szlama 1

Shlome Szluma 1

Shmarya Shmarye Smarya 1

Sam 2 English cognate Samuel 5

Shmoyl Schmerl 1

Shmuel Schmuel 1 Shmuel Shmul Schmul 4

Smiel 1 Smoel Smuel 1

Shmul Szmul 1

Salem Salim 1

Scholim 1 Sholem Sholem Sholem 1

Szulim 1

Shoshe Shasha 1 Shoshane Shoske Szoskie 1 Shoyel Soyel Sauel 1 Shprintse Shprinke Springe 1

Sema 1 Sime Sime Sime 2 Syma 1

Simkhe Simkhe Simche 1

Skharye Zekharya Zekharia 1 Sofye Sofie 1 Sonia 7 Sofle Sonye Sonja 1 English cognate Sophie 4 Tsere Cera 1 Tsore Choire 1

Tsire Cira 1 Cirla 1 Tsirle Cyrla 1

English cognate Sadie 3

Sara 17 Sara Sarah 18

English cognate Sarina 1

Serlin Serian 1

Sherle Shrilia 1 Sore Sora 3 Sore Sore 2

Sosie 1 Sosye Sosje 1

Sose Sosse 2

Soshe Soszie 1

Sura 9

Sure Surah 1

Sure 7 Surtse Sussie 1 Tsirle Tirlea 1 Tamare Tamara 1

Tamare Teme 1 Teme Temme 1 Teyne Tena Tina 1

Tislave Teslave Tesie 1

Tessie 1 Tauba 3 Taube Taube 5

Toybe Taybl Teibel 1 Tujbe Thiba 1 Tobe Tobe 2 Tsharna Charna 1

Tsherne Tsharne Czarne 1 Tsharna Czarno 1 English cognate Cecelia 1

English cognate Celia 6

Cila 1 Tsilye Tsilye Cyla 1

Tsheshe Czesche 1

Tsele Zeile 1

Tsinye Chinia 1 Tsine Tsinke Chinka 1

Beverlin/Payerkhe Bewekka 1

Cipa 1 Tsipe Cipe 1

Tsipore Cipore 1

Tsipoyre Paye Peja 1

Pola 1 Payle Polea 1

Payerlin Polin 1 Tsipe Zipe 1 Ciuoja 1 Tsivye Civia 2

Ciwa 1 Tsivye Tsive Ciwe 1 Tsivye Cyfsie 1

Tsive Cywa 1

Tsivye Cywia 1 Ure Yure Iur 1 Vicio 1 Vitye Vittia 1 Vite Vite Wita 1 Vitye Witia 1 Vitle Witla 1

Volf Volf 1 Welvel 1 Velvl Volf Welwel 1

Volf Wolf 5

Vulf Wulf 2

Yadzhe Yadzha Jaza 1

English cognate Jacob 3

French cognate Jacques 1

Spanish cognate Jaime 1

Yakob Jakob 3

Yakef Janchel 1 Yankl Jankel 4

Yakub Jokubas 1

Yakob Yacob 1

Yankl Yankiel 1

Yakhne Yakhne Jana 1

Enta 1

Yente Jente 3 Yentl Yenta 1 Yentl Yentel 2 Yokhved Yokheved Ioheved 1

Yore Yore Yore 1 Heyshie Haisha 1 Yoshue Yozue Iosua 1

Yoye Yoye Joia 1

Yoyel Yoel Yoel 1 English cognate Joe 4 Yosef Josef 4

Yosk Josck 1 Yosl Josel 1 Yoysef English cognate Joseph 7 Yosef Josif 2

Yosl Jossel 2 Yozef Jozef 2 Yosl Yosel 1

Yude Yudl Judel 1

Iders 1 Yides Ides 2

Ita 3 Ite Ite 1

Itye Itty 1

Yetkhe Jeschhe 1

Yudes Yeyte Jetti 2

Yite Jitte 1

Yudashe Judasche 1

Judes 1 Yudes Yedis 1

Yete Yetta 1

Yite Ytte 1

Selde 2 Zelde Zelde Zelda 1 Selig 2 Zelikman Zelig Zelig 2

Zisl Zise Zise 1 Zlate Zlote Zlota 2 Zusman Sussmann 1 Zusman Zisl Zicel 1

Zus Zus 1

“Number of Occurrences” will add up to more than 1503 due to certain immigrants possessing double names.

APPENDIX D: NON-HEBRAIC AND OBSCURE NAMES

APPEARING ON PASSENGER LISTS AND THEIR ETYMOLOGY

List of Non-Hebraic and Obscure Names

English Language Transcribed Name from Number of Cognate of Origin Passenger List Occurrences

Adelaide Germanic Ada 1

Alfred Old English Alfred 1

Amalia 2

Amalia Germanic Amalya 1

Amelie 1 Anastasia Greek Anastazija 1

Augusta Latin Augusta 1

Barnet Old English Barnet 1

Bessie 1 Elizabeth Hebrew Betty 1

Boris 1 Boris Turkic [Russian, et al.] Borys 1

Céline Latin Celine 1 [French] Charles Germanic Charles 1 Edmund Old English Edmund 1 Elvira Germanic Elvera 1 [German, et al.] Uncertain Uncertain Erdi 1

Erwin Germanic Erwin 1 [German, et al.] Estelle Latin Estelle 1

Ethel Old English Ethel 7

Eugene, Eugene 1 Greek Eugenia Eugenie 1

Fannie 8 Fanny 2 Frances, Latin Fany 1 Francis Frances 1

Frank 1 Frederick Germanic Fred 1 George Greek George 1

Gertrude Germanic Gertrud 1

Giselle Germanic Gizella 1

Augusta Latin Gussie 5

Harris 1 Henry Germanic Harry 5

Herbert Germanic Herbert 1

Herman Germanic Herman 2

Ida Germanic Ida 7

Uncertain Uncertain Isze 1

Jacob Hebrew Jacques 1

Joan Hebrew Jeannette 1

Jennie 2 Jennifer Welsh Jenny 1

Julius Latin Julius 1

Katherine Greek Kate 1 Elizabeth Hebrew Libby 1 Elizabeth, Hebrew, Lillian 3 Lily Latin Dolores Latin Lola 1

Louis, Louis 3 Germanic Louise Luise 1 May Greek Mae 1

Martin Latin Martens 1

Mathilda 1 Matilda Germanic Mathilde 1 Matilda 1

Maxmilian, Latin, Max 7 Maxwell Latin/Old English

Uncertain Uncertain Mercado 1 Mildred, Old English, Millicent, Millie 1 Germanic et al. Wilhelmina Germanic Minnie 3 Uncertain Uncertain Mor 1

Maurice Latin Morris 8

Eleanor, Occitan, Nellie 1 Helen Greek

Helga Old Norse Olga 1 [German, et al.] Paula 1 Paula Latin Paulina 1

Pauline 1

Philip Greek Philip 3

Robert Germanic Roberto 1

Uncertain Uncertain Senora 1

Matilda Germanic Tillie 3

Anthony Latin Tony 1

Victor Latin Victor 1 William Germanic William 2

Uncertain Uncertain Yamilla 1 Juliana Latin Yulana 1 Uncertain Uncertain Zraim 1

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